Daughter of a Dead Woman
by Avery Taylor
Summary: A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, a decoy was created to protect the Alderaanian princess...
1. Prologue - Coruscant (19 BBY)

_This storyline is based on one of the best dreams I have ever had the night before this first chapter was written._

_It will span from 19 BBY (Revenge of the Sith) to 4 ABY (after Return of the Jedi)._

* * *

**_A long time ago in a galaxy far,_**

**_far away..._**

* * *

**_- - - - - 19 BBY - - - - -_**

**_- - - - - Coruscant - - - - -_**

The blue-silver medical droid with bright cerulean eyes floated over to two men. One had medium skin with hair dark as night, with the dress of a diplomat. The other was a modestly dressed, slightly more aged man with dirty blonde hair. The latter was a Jedi, proven by the lightsaber in his belt. Both expressions were solemn.

"Medically, she's completely healthy," the droid explained to them. "For reasons we can't explain, we are losing her." The black-haired diplomat frowned, rolling his head in thought.

"She's dying?" the Jedi said, finding the words hard to believe.

"We don't know why," the droid continued. "She has lost the will to live. We need to operate quickly if we are going to save the babies."

* * *

"Hidden—safe—the children must be kept," decided a small green alien creature who clearly had some moral high ground compared to the diplomat and the Jedi from before.

"We must take them somewhere where the Sith will not sense their presence," the Jedi added.

"Mmm…split up, the children should be," the creature decided.

"My wife and I will take the girl," the diplomat offered, a slight smile on his face as if a long-awaited dream had come true. "We've always talked of adopting a baby girl. She will be loved with us."

Both the green creature—whose robes resembled the Jedi's, so it was safe to assume he was a follower of the Force as well—and the human Jedi nodded.

"And what of the boy?" the human Jedi asked.

"To Tatooine," said the green Jedi. "To his family, send him." The other Jedi took a moment of thought.

"I will take the child and watch over him," he said after the pause.

At that, the diplomat and the human Jedi rose to their feet. The green creature of the Force had a last note to give Obi-Wan.

"Until the time is right—disappear, we will."

* * *

The dark-haired diplomat returned to the medical center and took one last look at the now deceased woman who he was speaking to the medical droid about before. The same medical droid approached the man.

"Senator Organa, is there anything else you would like to know?" the same medical droid asked. Senator Organa shifted his weight and stroked his beard unsurely.

"What is the extent of your scientific abilities when it comes to harvesting a woman's eggs?" the diplomat asked. The droid paused a moment.

"Extensive. What exactly do you wish us to do, sir?"

"Is it possible to harvest this woman's eggs and create a female child? The children she had would be in grave danger if their identities were ever discovered—I will be taking the girl, and in order to make sure she is protected, I need a decoy. A child carried by a surrogate who is clearly the child of this woman."

"Sir," the droid said. "May I suggest an artificial womb? If you are planning on using this child as a decoy as you say, the artificial wombs available are based on the cloning system developed for Jango Fett. In these artificial wombs, it is now possible to speed up or slow down the growth process."

Senator Organa grimaced, disgusted that he would have to resort to this—making a dead woman's baby—but knowing above anything that he had to protect his newly adopted daughter.

* * *

_**- - - - - Four weeks later - - - - -**_

"Senator Organa," greeted a medical droid. "You've returned."

"Yes," said the diplomat. "I trust the decoy child has been born by now?"

The droid hesitated, then consulted another droid before returning to the Senator.

"There has been an error, sir."

"Is the child alright?" Organa asked urgently. The thought that something could have gone wrong with this life he himself had ordered the creation of clearly pained him.

"The child is perfectly healthy," assured the droid. "There was simply an error in our operations. Rather than speeding the conception to more closely meet the age of Miss Padme's other daughter, we have slowed it down." The droid lead the senator to a small contraption similar to a bacta tank, showing a tiny creature inside with a cord attached. It was the artificial womb the droid had spoke of at their last meeting. "In an attempt to alter the process so that the rapid aging would stop as soon as the child was removed from the womb at term, the subject did not respond as expected and instead will take up to eight years to come to term."

"And after those eight years, how will the child age?" the senator asked.

"Normally. That, sir, is certain," the droid promised. Organa bit his lip.

"Is there a father, or do you make that artificial, too?" he asked.

"The child was produced with the mother's egg and the sperm of an anonymous donor," the droid explained. "The father is unknown to us."

Organa nodded slowly.

"As explained before," the Senator began. "When the child comes to term and is born, she will be sent to Alderaan. Though she may not be the decoy I anticipated I have now seen an error in my ways and do not approve of how I created this child just to protect my own. I will ensure this child is safe no matter what. She is my responsibility."

"Of course, sir," the droid responded. At that, he floated out of the room. Senator Organa took one last look at the artificial womb and the tiny bud of a child inside. The label on the tank read 'Female Child Naberrie'. Organa frowned and rubbed the 'Female Child' part of the name away. He took a nearby writing utensil and replaced it with a real name. The label now read 'Tess Naberrie'.


	2. Chapter 1 - Dantooine (0 BBY)

**_- - - - - Nineteen Years Later - - - - -_**

**_- - - - - 0 BBY - - - - -_**

**__****_- - - - -Fields of Benir on the Planet Dantooine - - - - -_**

Tess Naberrie woke up to an unusual quiet with a sense of something coming in the back of her mind. Slowly, she allowed herself to open her eyes. Her small room was as she left it—the hay-colored walls matching the golden light of the Dantooine sky that peeked through her windows. She could see the two moons of the planet she had called home for the past two years from her bed, giving her the assurance of familiarity needed to make her forget her worries from moments ago.

The green Fields of Benir awaited her right outside her small cottage-like home if she wished to entertain herself with a walk through the extensive pastures, which would eventually lead to an exploration of the ruins of the Jedi temple nearby. Despite her eleven years of age, Tess had quite a child-like curiosity. She had grown up sheltered by three different guardians—her current one a middle-aged woman named Inny—and knew little of the world that she didn't explore on her own.

Dantooine was remote and consisted mostly of fields and little technology that would give her a peek into the outside worlds, but Tess learned all she could from the very few people around her. Her guardian would share with Tess the many stories Inny's uncle had helped pass down—stories of the Jedi who lived in the ancient Jedi Temple, which was once a sight to behold illuminated by a power of the Force that Tess had concluded was no more than a myth now. Tess would beg Inny to continue her stories into the late hours of the night, but the guardian would leave and Tess would have fascinating dreams to finish the stories. She dreamt that she joined the Jedi Order over 3,000 years ago, took her Jedi oaths and fought with them to destroy the Jedi-turned-Sith Darth Malak with her lightsaber in hand.

But there were no dreams to reminisce about this morning. Today was one of the rare occasions where her mind seemed to stay silent all through the night.

Tess finally pulled herself out of bed and slipped into a dark blue tunic and dirt-colored pants that matched the Dantooine soil. She could smell the lingering aroma of a delicious breakfast waiting for her in the main room of her little cottage.

"Good morning, Inny," Tess sang as she untucked her long, dark hair from the collar of her tunic and sat at the table where her breakfast was already in place. Inny turned around to smile at Tess, her beautiful green eyes shining beneath the slight crinkles of age around them.

"Good morning, Tessie," Inny returned. She crossed the kitchen to give the child a kiss on the head before pulling the long brunette locks together for a braid. Of all the guardians Tess had—Twisha, Chid, and Vika—Inny was Tess' favorite. Twisha was an older woman that watched Tess in infancy whom she hardly remembered. Chid was a strict, militaristic man who was more focused on educating her than being the parent-like figure that Tess wanted her guardian to be. He was around from when Tess turned four until she was seven. And Vika was a young Twi'lek who was nice but Tess didn't feel very wanted or loved with her. She only lasted about three months before she decided being a guardian was not for her. Then came Inny, a motherly woman who always wanted children. She was a bit overweight with red hair that she wore up off her neck and the kindest eyes anyone had ever seen. She was a visitor over the years—a sort of friend of the family, as far as Tess' lack of family went. As soon as Vika quit, Inny realized she loved Tess like a daughter already and jumped at the chance to care for the girl.

A knock on the door and a voice interrupted the breakfast.

"Surprise visit," said a man from outside. Tess immediately recognized the voice.

"Uncle Bail!" she exclaimed, running to the door, throwing it open, and jumping into the familiar man's arms. Bail Organa laughed and hugged the girl back, stroking her half-braided hair.

"I hope I didn't interrupt one of those amazing Inny breakfasts," he chuckled, putting Tess down and guiding her to the table to finish eating. Inny smiled at Bail, then at Tess.

"I was going to tell you about his visit today, Tessie," Inny explained. "But he insisted that he surprise you."

"I'm surprised!" Tess admitted, unable to resist going in for another hug. Her Uncle Bail was Tess' favorite person in the world. She didn't get to see him a lot, but he was the closest thing to family that she had besides Inny.

Chid once told Tess it was rude for her to speak of such things so she never did, but Tess had always wished that Uncle Bail would take her home with him to Alderaan to live in his castle. She had never even been inside it before, even when she lived on Alderaan with Chid. Still, during her exploring Tess would see the palace and watch people go in and out. They always wore fancy dresses and robes—whites, pinks, light blues—and each one could have been a king or queen. Uncle Bail's wife was the Queen before she died—or so Tess was told—and sometimes Tess imagined she was Uncle Bail's daughter and therefore a princess.

One time, when Tess was relentless in expressing these wishes to Chid, he blurted out that Uncle Bail already had a daughter—a princess—and he didn't need another one as unintelligent as Tess. Of course, Tess ignored the unintelligent part—she had learned not to care much for intelligence considering it seemed to make Chid so mean and boring—but the fact that Uncle Bail had a little girl of his own put a halt to Tess' fantasies.

Uncle Bail joined Tess and Inny for breakfast, and after a brief study lesson with Inny—which Tess paid particular attention to with her uncle watching—Uncle Bail took Tess out on a walk. She told him all about how the fields never ended, much like the seas of Alderaan. She told him about the abandoned Jedi Temple, but soon changed the subject because he seemed to tense up a little every time she talked about it. She told him how much she missed the dresses and the silk of the common Alderaanian fashion and he promised to bring her back a dress next time he visited her.

"Uncle Bail?" Tess said, looking up at the man a bit nervously. "If I ask you something, do you promise not to think it's rude?" Bail Organa chuckled, squeezing Tess' hand.

"Well, of course," he assured her. "Even if it would normally be rude, you gave me fair warning, so it doesn't really count." He winked down at Tess, but it didn't give her much reassurance or courage to ask what she was about to ask. She forced herself to just spit it out.

"Do you have a daughter?" Not the exact question she meant to ask—Tess already knew he had a daughter—but good enough. Bail was a bit taken aback. It took him a moment to answer.

"That was a bit unexpected," he admitted, his expression blank. "Yes, I do have a daughter. Who told you? Inny?"

"No, Chid," Tess confessed. "A long time ago. I just…sorry…" Tess looked down. Bail obviously saw something was bothering her. He dropped to his knees and tilted her chin to look at him.

"Tess," he said. "You don't need to be sorry. I just didn't want you to feel less special knowing that you're not my only little girl. But you're still my little girl, Tess." He gave her another smile, which resulted in just the slightest return from the eleven-year-old.

"How old is she?" Tess asked. "Is she my age?"

"She's older," Bail said. "She is almost nineteen years old. She's quite a young woman now - she has even participated in the government on Alderaan like I do. And I can see you creating just as amazing a life for yourself when you are her age. You look almost exactly like she did at eleven years old." That got a smile out of Tess.

"Really?" she asked. Bail nodded.

"She had the same brown hair and brown eyes, same little nose, same beautiful smile…you two could easily be—"

Their conversation was interrupted as Bail Organa's comlink made a noise. He patted Tess on the shoulder and excused himself as he paced a few feet away to answer the call. Tess could pick out a few words.

"She…she what? What happened? …Winter, slow down, I can't understand you… Oh… Oh no… Have they tried to contact me on Alderaan? …How many? …I'm on my way back now."

At that, Bail returned the comlink to his pocket and took Tess by the shoulders. He could see that his nerves had made her panic.

"Tess, everything's fine," he assured her. "But I'm going to need you to go back to the cottage on your own. There's an emergency back at home." Bail tried to leave at that, but Tess grabbed his hand.

"Is it your daughter? Is she in trouble?" she asked, her eyes welling up as her emotions got the best of her.

"I don't know," Bail said softly, trying to wiggle his hand out of her grasp. "I have to go now, Tess."

"No!" Tess cried. She ran after him as he freed his hand from hers and rushed ahead towards his ship. "Please! Uncle Bail, take me with you! Please! I want to help! I want to help her!"

Bail turned around, tears in his eyes, and scooped the girl up in his arms.

"I can't, Tess," he sobbed. She had never even seen him cry. It made her cry harder. "I have to go. I love you, Tess." He gave her a kiss on the forehead, set her down, and raced back to his ship.

Tess watched him run. She strained her eyes through the golden Dantooine brightness as he became smaller and smaller, and finally as his ship ascended and left the atmosphere.

Twenty-three days later, Alderaan was gone, and Uncle Bail went with it.


	3. Chapter 2 - Dantooine (0 BBY)

Twenty-three days following The Alderaanian senator's departure, Inny sadly gave Tess the news that both her Uncle Bail and the planet she once called home were gone. Tess spent hours crying in her guardian's arms. Inny held her and rocked her in her bed, whispering soft comforting words in the eleven-year-old's ears. Finally, Tess managed to get a few words out.

"Where am I going to go now?" Tess muttered.

"What do you mean?" Inny asked. "You'll stay right here with me, love. Why do you think that would change?"

"But…Uncle Bail…he can't pay you," the girl said. Inny brought a hand to her mouth, her eyes welling up slowly.

"Oh, dear, you can't possibly think I'm with you for the money…" Inny whispered, hugging her close. "Tess, I love you. You are like a daughter to me—I thought you knew that. Oh, dear…" Inny planted several kisses on the child's forehead and rocked her some more, letting her cry until they both fell asleep.

* * *

Hours later, after falling asleep in Inny's arms, Tess and her guardian were awakened by a knock on the door.

"Oh, its so late…" Inny muttered sleepily, pushing herself to her feet and tucking Tess more tightly under the covers. "Go back to sleep, Tessie." But Tess was too curious for that.

Tess listened intently as the front door to their little cottage squeaked open. She heard the faint mutterings of a few male voices and Inny's, but could not make out the words. Then suddenly, an electrical hum pulsated through the air, followed by male outbursts, four blaster fires, and several heavy thumps as if something fell to the ground.

Tess' eyes widened like saucers. Her throat dried up—she wanted to cry out for Inny, but she couldn't speak. However, she didn't need to cry out because Inny rushed into the room seconds later.

Inny grabbed Tess' hand and dragged her out of bed.

"What happened?" Tess asked, caught off-guard as Inny forced a tunic over her head.

"Nothing you need to be concerned about," Inny assured her. She had an odd metal cylinder-shaped device in her hand, which she quickly stuffed in her own tunic. It appeared to be a long, thin can of something. Inny took Tess by the shoulders and looked her in the eyes. "Tess," she began in a serious voice. "You're going to see something out there that is not going to be pleasant. But I'm going to protect you, okay? I know you have questions, but there will be time for them later. We need to get out of here. Now."

"But—"

"Tess," Inny warned, holding up a finger as if to suppress the girl's questions. "Just keep your eyes forward and follow me outside."

Tess nodded bravely, her hands shaking. She dutifully followed Inny but let herself slip into one of her fantasies. She imagined she was an esteemed young leader of the rebellion like she imagined Uncle Bail's daughter would be—the demeanor and poise of a princess, but the courage and strength of a soldier. But no matter how fanciful Tess' imagination was, she could not ignore the severed limbs and bodily remnants that she stepped over when exiting the front door of the cottage.

Once they made it outside, the cold Dantooine air met Tess and Inny's faces. As their eyes adjusted to the darkness, they saw a white wall of Empire stormtroopers surrounding them completely. Tess' younger eyes noticed them before Inny did. She noticed the shine of a raised blaster first, too.

"Inny, wait, look!" Tess screeched.

Suddenly, a single blaster shot snapped at the air and Inny fell to the ground.

"Inny!" Tess screamed, dropping to her guardian's side. Inny tried to hide the wound on her arm but blood seeped through her opposite hand that she covered it with. Tears of fear and worry and confusion fell from Tess' eyes.

"It's okay…" Inny muttered, clearly startled and out of breath with pain. She pulled herself to a stand with Tess' help, just in time to notice a man in gray uniform approaching them. For a second Tess thought he would help them. Unlike the stormtroopers, the fact that she could see his face made him more human and less of a "mindless clone of destruction" like she once heard a local man call them. As the man in the gray suit came closer Tess recognized him, but she could not yet put a name to the face. Inny beat her to it.

"Chid," Inny muttered through clenched teeth. "You traitor." Chid couldn't help but laugh.

"You are one to talk, Inny Foetl," he chuckled. "The Rebel Alliance and all its members are the traitors, not the Empire." Chid's eyes shifted to Tess. "Ah, this one has grown. Tricky, that Organa. Why, she's not even the proper age! But she is the child, isn't she?"

Inny pushed Tess behind her protectively.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Inny insisted. Chid rolled his head and straightened his stance as if to show he was bigger and better than her.

"That dimwit Alderaanian senator didn't think we would figure it out, but we did. There are medical records to prove it. Hidden of course, but always accessible for the Empire. She's quite the little science experiment, isn't she? Taken out of Padme prematurely, put into an artificial womb to finish her growth at the slowest pace possible, so that even if we searched every child that was age-appropriate, we still would not find her! But we did. And her father wishes to see her."

"My father?—" Tess began.

"You don't know what you are talking about, Chid!" Inny snapped, more angry than Tess had ever seen her. "This is an innocent child, and she is not the child you think she is! You've got it all wrong!"

Striding closer until he was a step away from them, Chid flashed a chilling smile at Tess, then back at Inny.

"Then you won't mind if we take her to investigate that," he said softly.

With fantastic speed and precision, Inny whipped the metal cylinder out of her tunic at lightening speed and with the press of a button, it hummed into a yellow lightsaber and inflicted a painful and demobilizing but not lethal wound to Chid's chest.

"Tess, run!" Inny screamed. Tess didn't need to be told twice.

But the stormtroopers closed in on them too fast. Tess had not taken five steps before one of them scooped a cold, armored hand around her waist, lifting her straight off the ground. She kicked and swung her body, but to no avail. Two more stormtroopers helped grab her. One pulled out a thick needle filled with pale yellow liquid. Tess cried out in terror.

"Tess!" Inny screeched through the darkness, recognizing the girl's scream. Tess' eyes followed the voice until she saw a circle of stormtroopers surrounding Inny, though the only indication of Inny was the top of her yellow lightsaber.

An eruption of blaster fire seemed to create multiple stab wounds in Tess' ear until the glow of the lightsaber fell.

With Inny gone, Tess lost the last shred of anything close to a family that she had ever known.


	4. Chapter 3 - Death Star I (0 BBY)

**_- - - - - The Death Star - - - - -_**

Gray quickly became Tess' least favorite color. It was the color of the cellblock on the Death Star that held her captive. It was the color of the officers' suits. It was the color of the blasters that killed her guardian, Inny.

For a while, she let these thoughts of anger distract her from the growing questions about her past and her biological parents. Soon enough, though, they resurfaced heavier than they had her entire life.

No one had ever told her anything.

Uncle Bail was the only constant in her life and the closest thing to a father that she had, but she had never gotten any of her questions answered. Everyone she asked would just brush it aside and tell her she should not ask such things—just be happy with what she has. Well, now she had nothing, and though so many unanswered questions lingered, no one was there to answer them.

As much as Tess dreaded a cellblock visit from another imperial officer—or worse, Darth Vader—her craving for these answers conflicted with that anxiety. Chid seemed to know something, or at least he thought he knew something. He mentioned Tess' father. And something about her age? Something medical? Scientific? He talked about her as if she was some creation or a science experiment. She was so terrified at the time, not much of the conversation stuck in her memory, though.

Tess wondered if Inny had known the truth, whatever that truth was. The guardian had obviously been hiding the fact that she was a Jedi. What else was kept under lock and key in their little cottage? Chid became an officer, Inny was a Jedi—what if Twisha and Vika were something important, too? What if Tess needed more protecting from a guardian than Uncle Bail let on?

All of this information lead to the biggest question: what was Tess being protected from her entire life?

Snapping Tess out of her thoughts, the metal door to her cellblock whooshed open. Chid stood in the doorway with three others behind him—a much older officer and two stormtroopers. The troopers immediately rushed forward, each grabbing her by an arm, lifting her to a stand on the cold, metal bed, and holding her against the wall. Surprising herself with more anger than fear, Tess struggled against their grasp.

"What do you want with me?!" she demanded. Chid laughed at her resistance, as did the other officer. Her former guardian ignored her as he approached her with a needle. With purposeful force he stabbed it into her arm, making Tess cry out.

"Was that so necessary, Admiral Deltrod?" the older officer asked Chid.

"With all due respect, Governor Tarkin," Chid muttered as he drew blood from Tess' arm. "If you knew this brat like I did for three years, you would not question giving her a little more pain than necessary when given the opportunity."

At that, Tess swung her knee up in between her former guardian's legs, sending him crumpling to the ground; but her victory was short-lived as the stormtroopers got a rougher hold on her and one of them jammed his blaster into her side. Tess grimaced in pain as she felt the force of the blunt object and what was sure to be a nasty bruise in a few hours. She would have doubled over if the stormtroopers were not holding her up. Tarkin—who was still a head taller than her even with her boost from the bench—grabbed Tess roughly under the chin.

"Charming to the last," Governor Tarkin sneered through clenched teeth. "Much like the young woman across from you who is scheduled for execution."

In fear, Tess held her breath.

"Now, unless you wish to be scheduled right after the Princess of Alderaan, my child—"

"The Princess of Alderaan?!"

A swift slap from the governor stung Tess' face before he grabbed her chin again.

"Yes, the Princess of Alderaan," Tarkin snapped, his voice low and articulate, his words fast and menacing. "The Princess of Alderaan whose planet is now destroyed because she did not do as she was told. Among those that died in the planet's destruction was the former Senator of the Alderaan Sector of the Imperial Senate, Bail Prestor Organa. I believe you knew him as Uncle Bail. What you do not know, is that he is not your uncle, but the man who kidnapped you, turned you into a science project, and hid you from your true parents."

"You're lying…" Tess stammered. Tears rolled down her cheeks and wet the sides of Tarkin's hand.

Tarkin searched Tess' eyes as if he could perform a lie detector test that way.

"Who are your parents?" he asked, his intensity dimmer.

"I don't know," Tess exhaled, her eyes dropping sadly. "My last name is Naberrie, but that can't be my real last name. The Naberrie family is a royal family in Naboo. Uncle Bail sometimes visited Naboo and probably knew the family well, so he named me after them. But I really don't know, no has ever told me about my family, I swear."

She purposefully neglected to mention the name 'Padme', which she had heard thrown around countless times by guardians or Uncle Bail when they did not know she was listening. Tess had always assumed that was her mother's name. However, the idea that her mother could be Padme Naberrie was nothing more than a fantasy she had grown out of. Padme was a popular name on several sectors.

Once again, Tarkin searched Tess' eyes. He finally let go of her chin and waved the stormtroopers out. By now, Chid—or Admiral Deltrod, as he was now called—had recovered enough to stand and follow the stormtroopers out of the room. Tess collapsed on the metal bench.

"Oh, and by the way," Tarkin added from the doorway, a sly grin sweeping his wrinkles up. "I will be sending Lord Vader in to speak to you soon. He will be less merciful than I."

At that, the door zoomed shut, leaving Tess with shaking hands and the sound of her panicking heartbeat.


	5. Chapter 4 - Death Star I (0 BBY)

Darth Vader. What did he want with an eleven-year-old kid like her? Tess knew one thing for sure—something was significant that she was not seeing in its entirety yet. It was not a coincidence that the Princess of Alderaan—Uncle Bail's daughter—was a prisoner on the Death Star at the same time Tess was.

The only connection that Tess and the princess had was through Bail Organa. And if they were out to get revenge on Bail Organa by kidnapping his daughter and whatever Tess was to him, there would be no point to destroying his home planet, which they probably knew he was on. No, this couldn't have anything to do with Bail directly.

The door opening yet again interrupted Tess' thoughts. To her relief, it was not Darth Vader standing there, but an older man with gray hair in a dark brown cloak. Once relief subsided, confusion took over.

"You don't look like you work here," Tess told him, standing up.

"I don't, do I?" the kind-looking older man agreed, looking down at his robes. "I assume you are Tess?"

The girl nodded.

"Well, Tess," the man said. "I am Ben Kenobi, an old friend of Bail Organa's. Now, we don't have much time, so I need you to listen carefully."

"You're a friend of—?"

"Tess, we don't have much time," Ben Kenobi reminded her, his voice still kind. "I need you to go down this hall, take the elevator down to the landing platform, and there you'll see an old-looking ship. Tess, get on that ship. Now, run!"

"Will you be there?" Tess asked nervously, taking steps backwards towards her destination. Though he was trying not to worry her too much, she sensed the urgency in his voice.

"No," Kenobi told her. "But you will be safe there. Now go, Tess."

Ben Kenobi gave her a gentle nudge in the right direction. Tess obediently raced down the hall until she found herself in the elevator. It all happened so quickly, as if her body was put on autopilot. She heard blasters firing from somewhere else in the building.

Before she knew it, she was in front of an old-looking ship. She had never seen one like this before—the ships she saw on Alderaan were always the latest technology. Still, Tess felt she could trust the man who set her free and snuck up under the ship until she could scatter up the ramp.

As soon as she reached the top, Tess heard a male voice cry out 'NO!' from nearby. She spun around and saw a familiar brown cloak collapse from human form to a pile on the ground. The culprit was Darth Vader himself, his red lightsaber illuminating the space around it. The outburst seemed to come from a blonde man in a white tunic near him.

But Tess did not have the time to mourn the man who had helped her. The blaster fire was getting closer and people were rushing towards the ship.

Tess raced through the tiny halls of the ship as fast as she could, trying to find some sort of back room where the occupants would not likely look. She didn't know if they would be friendly or not. All she knew was that this was her ticket out of being Darth Vader's prisoner and she was not going to jeopardize that.

Tess heard the blasters get louder and heavier as the stormtroopers closed in on the people who planned to get out on this ship. Clearly, they were not supposed to be leaving.

"Please make it…" Tess whispered to herself. "Please make it…"

Sure enough, she heard what sounded like a ramp closing up as the ground beneath her feet played with the gravity. The ship was in the air—they were going to make it! They were going to escape! Tess could have cried out in relief and triumph but she was still thinking that revealing herself would not be a good idea.


	6. Chapter 5 - Millennium Falcon (0 BBY)

**_- - - - - Aboard the Millennium Falcon - - - - -_**

An hour must have passed before Tess could no longer resist the urge to get a peek at the people who probably just saved her life. She inched down the hallway and after a few sharp corners found herself in a place where she could see some sort of lounge room as far as lounge rooms on a cheap ship go.

She saw the back of a blonde head—the man who had cried out when Ben Kenobi was killed. He was sitting sullenly at a little booth with a table in front of it. A woman in a white dress with dark hair fashioned into two large buns approached him with a blanket. She wrapped it around his shoulders and sat at his side.

"I just can't believe he's gone," the man sighed. Tess made an educated guess that he was talking about Ben Kenobi.

"There wasn't anything you could have done," the woman assured him.

Hearing those words, Tess wondered if there was anything she could have done to save the Princess of Alderaan. Would Uncle Bail be disappointed in her?

Suddenly, the ship made a slight jerk to the left. Not having grown into her ship legs yet, the jolt sent Tess into the wall, which alerted the man and woman at the table to the intruder. Instinctively, the man pulled out his blaster and pointed it in Tess' direction.

Tess inhaled sharply in shock, holding her hands up in surrender.

"Please, don't shoot!" she begged.

"Luke, she's just a kid!" the woman spat, rushing over to comfort Tess. Luke stuffed his blaster in his pocket, his cheeks turning a boyish red with embarrassment. Now that she saw them up close, they looked more like teenagers than a man and a woman.

"Sorry," Luke apologized sincerely. "It was just instinct. We did just fly out of the Death Star, after all."

Suddenly, a deep, loud growl from behind made Tess jump a foot. She was even more terrified when she spun around and saw a 7-foot Wookie behind her. The older girl tried to grab Tess' hand to comfort her but at this point Tess felt like she was being chased around the room. She found herself running to the nearest hallway, which plowed her into a scruffy-looking man in a dirty shirt and vest. He grabbed Tess by the wrist.

"A stowaway?" he grumbled, loosening his grip on her enough so that she wasn't in pain but she was kept in place. "You think you can hitch a free ride on my ship? When did you tag along? Tatooine?"

"Do any of you see that this is a nine-year-old kid here?" the older girl said demandingly, as if it was an order to leave Tess be.

"I'm eleven," Tess corrected, her eyes locked on the scruffy man's, trying to look innocent. "And I got on the ship while it was on the Death Star. An old man told me to do it." Tess turned to face Luke, since he knew her savior. "The man who Darth Vader killed. Ben Kenobi. He set me free and told me to come here."

The man finally let go of Tess' wrist and the girl in the white dress guided her to the table, offering her a seat.

"I'm Leia," she said kindly, smiling. Tess smiled back. "What's your name?" Tess hesitated. Leia saw her anxiety and brushed off the question. "It's okay, you don't have to tell me yet. What were you doing on the Death Star?"

Tess bit her lip, not sure if Ben Kenobi's instructions implied that she could trust these people or just hitchhike with them. Still, she decided that at least Luke and Leia seemed nice enough.

"I was a prisoner," Tess admitted softly. Leia frowned, her eyes wide with palpable concern. "They took me from Dantooine. They killed my guardian. I still don't know why they did it."

The man shook his head in disbelief at the idea that a kid as young as Tess could be prisoner, but he tried to hide his concern for some reason.

Leia seemed to review some thoughts for a moment, then turned back to Tess.

"I don't know if Dantooine is entirely safe now…but do you know anyone anywhere else? Is there somewhere we can take you?"

"Does this thing look like free transportation to you?" the scruffy man spat.

"Han," Leia scolded, giving him a cold look. She turned back to Tess for her answer. The eleven-year-old tried to force the tears back when she thought about the planet she lived on most of her life. "My uncle was on Alderaan…but…"

Leia's face went stone cold, but her eyes shined just the slightest bit with what could have been tears if she had let them happen.

"I see," Leia said softly. She stood up and thought for a moment. Then, somehow her thoughts lead her down a hallway and out of sight.

Once Leia was gone, Tess couldn't help but feel like revealing herself wasn't the best idea. Han still considered her a stowaway, who knows what the Wookie could do to her, and Luke did not seem like one to step in if they wanted to throw her out of the ship into space.

To Tess' surprise, Han spun around and went back down towards the cockpit. The Wookie followed. She was left with Luke, who sat by her at the table. He sighed.

"Did you know Ben Kenobi well?" Luke asked. Tess shook her head. Luke nodded awkwardly, not really knowing what else to say.

"Why did you land on the Death Star?" Tess wondered aloud after a moment.

"To save the princess," he sighed. It was as if that meant nothing anymore. Tess assumed it was because he failed.

"I'm sorry you couldn't do it," Tess told him sincerely. Luke tilted his head, confused.

"But I did," he said. "You just met her. Leia Organa, the Princess of Alderaan. I know I sounded disappointed…that's just because Ben Kenobi was a family friend of mine so as great as saving the princess was, I just wish I could have saved Ben, too."

Tess' jaw nearly dropped to the floor.

"Leia is the princess?!" she blurted. Luke couldn't help but laugh.

"Yep, she is."

Tess still couldn't believe it. She couldn't process it. She had so many questions she could ask Leia—but should she?

How would Leia react to her father having a secret child that he got from somewhere and assigned guardians for? She was a princess—princesses were supposed to be spoilt rotten. But Leia seemed nice. Maybe it was a cover that would go away if she found out the truth about Tess.

Luke sensed Tess' anxiety.

"What's the matter?" he asked the girl, his voice soft and kind. Her teary eyes covered by the palms of her hands, Tess shook her head.

"You wouldn't understand."


	7. Chapter 6 - Yavin 4 (0 BBY)

**_Chapter 6_**

**_- - - - - Yavin 4 - - - - -_**

Several hours later, the ship that Tess learned was called the Millennium Falcon made a successful landing on Yavin 4. Leia was in one of the back rooms from the time she first left until the group prepared to disembark. Tess did her best to catch her new friend's eye, but to no avail. After hours of thinking, Tess decided that telling Leia about their mutual connection to Bail Organa was something she had to do. After all, Leia's entire family was probably killed in the destruction of Alderaan, leaving her alone just like Tess was. Maybe they could be that family to each other that both had lost.

As soon as the ramp descended, a small green car was waiting for them outside. A bustle of people were walking, too. Luke had told her that their destination was a rebel base on Yavin 4, but here were far more people than Tess expected from a rebel base.

Luke, Leia, and Tess hopped on the car. Once they were aboard, it merged ahead. Tess seemed to be the only one to notice that Han and the Wookie Chewbacca did not join them for the ride.

"Leia?" Tess began after several moments of trying to force herself to speak.

"Mmhm?" responded the princess. Suddenly, Tess forgot what she was going to say. It came back just in time for her to avoid looking like an absolute idiot.

"There's…um…you know how we were both from Alderaan?"

Then, as if Tess had not said a word, Leia hopped off the car with her white dress flowing behind her to greet an older man. Tess followed, doubtful that Luke would want an eleven-year-old girl's company. Leia probably did not want it either, but Tess had to tell her.

"You're safe," the older man said with relief, hugging Leia. "When we heard about Alderaan, we feared the worst." The man noticed Tess. "Who's this?"

"A child. We have no time for sorrows," Leia assured him quickly, seemingly walking faster than Tess' legs could carry her on purpose. "We need to use the information on this Artoo unit to plan the attack."

Tess glanced back at the blue and silver droid behind her. It seemed far more animated now that it was let out of the ship, unlike the golden droid Threepio who was silent for the first time in hours.

Finally, after realizing Tess was on her heels, Leia turned back to Tess.

"Why don't you find somewhere to sit down and entertain yourself?" Leia suggested. "We can't have you in the way, this is a real battle."

"Your father had a secret!" Tess blurted. As expected, Leia froze in her tracks. She slowly turned around, looking down at the eleven-year-old kid.

"What are you talking about?" Leia demanded. Clearly her diplomatic poise was not going to last much longer at the rate Tess was going.

"Me," Tess said, blatant certainty in her voice. She had finally got the princess' attention. "I called him Uncle Bail. My entire life, he placed me with guardians to watch over me. Up until two years ago I lived on Alderaan—not far from your home. I remember watching people walk in and out, wondering why, if he called me his little girl, I couldn't live there with—"

"Stop!" Leia spat. "You have an atrociously sick sense of humor."

"He was my father, too!" Tess insisted, tears finding her eyes. "Or the closest thing I had to one. I don't know why…I don't know if he was really my Uncle, or even a relative at all…as far as I'm concerned I'm just an orphan he took in and decided to keep secret."

Tess could tell that Leia was starting to believe her. "When was the last time you saw him?"

"Twenty-three days before he died," Tess answered robotically, wiping her tears. She met Leia's eyes. "He left because you were in trouble. Probably when you got captured by the Empire. That was the first time he ever talked about you with me. I mean, I knew he had another daughter from one of my guardians, but he never talked about you. He never even mentioned your name. He said he never told me because he didn't want to make me feel less special knowing that I wasn't his only little girl. It was probably the same for you."

Leia clearly did not want this to be true, which was an obstacle for her to come to believe Tess' claims.

"If what you say is true…" Leia said softly, her diplomatic tone returning. "If my father cared that much about you, I care about you, too. I'll make sure you find a safe home somewhere. Or maybe we can find some relatives you didn't know you had?" Leia thought for a moment. "I think you owe me your name now."

"Tess," the eleven-year-old told the princess. "Tess Naberrie."

Leia's eyes widened. It took a moment, but something clicked in her head that Tess could not possibly have known and a slight smile spread across her face.

"We'll talk more about this—I promise," Leia assured her. "It's just…the battle…"

"Of course, go," Tess nudged. "Save the galaxy." As Leia rushed away, Tess moseyed on over to a seating area where she could be out of everyone's hair. On her way, she overheard a conversation between two fighter pilots about Han.

"Yeah," said one of them as he hopped into his X-Wing. "Solo started packing to leave as soon as he got the reward for saving the princess. He's probably pulling off the ground now."

"What?" Tess muttered to herself. If the Millennium Falcon was anything Han said it was, it was exactly what they needed for this battle.

Moving as fast as her feet could take her, Tess finally found the Millennium Falcon. The ramp was already beginning to rise. With a pump of adrenaline, Tess raced to it and hopped up on the ramp just in time.

Once she gained her bearings, Tess remembered the way to the cockpit—or at least she thought she did. It did not help at all that the ship was speeding up and throwing a few turns that distorted Tess' sense of direction. But finally, she found Han and Chewbacca in the cockpit.

"What are you doing?!" she demanded, causing a startled smuggler and Wookie to jump in their seats. "What kind of heroes are you guys—taking the reward money and leaving?!"

"That's the thing, kid," Han muttered, rolling his eyes. "Chewie and I aren't heroes."

"But this ship—you said it's the fastest thing in the galaxy!"

"And don't you forget it," he said, wagging a finger at the kid. Chewie groaned in approval.

"Han, this ship can win this battle," Tess pushed, shaking his chair. That clearly did not get her anywhere near to being on his good side. "And not that its about the money entirely, but considering the reward you got for saving the princess, imagine the reward you would get for saving the galaxy?"

"One, this is hardly a case of saving the galaxy," Han told her. "Two, I've got all the reward I need to give me and Chewie here lots of happy years of travelling."

"But what about Luke?" Tess reminded him.

"What about him?"

"He believed in you!" Tess retorted. Han scoffed and rolled his eyes. Nearing defeat, Tess plopped down in a chair behind Han.

"Fine," she said with a sly grin indicating she had one last card to play. "Well, I guess if we're not going back to Yavin, I'm your new smuggling buddy. And...I guess if you're taking me back to Yavin, you might as well jump into the battle, you know? Since its on the way."

"What?!" Han chuckled. "No, this is adults only. You're getting dropped off at the next planet we hit."

"Then I'm telling the next person I see on the next planet we hit that you kidnapped me."


	8. Chapter 7 - Yavin 4 (0 ABY)

**_Chapter 7_**

**_- - - - - 0 BBY - - - - -_**

Tess could hardly believe it—a month ago she was a kid on Dantooine, and today she was a hero of the rebellion. She looked to her left at Han and Chewie, then to her right at Luke, each with expressions that portrayed the same amount of too-good-to-be-true that she had. Luke grinned down at her.

"Couldn't have done this without you," he told her with a wink, giving her hand a squeeze. "Thanks for turning my buddy around." Han gave her a look that told her he felt the same, too. Tess grinned from ear to ear. As the music swelled, their cue to walk forward came.

Tess looked down the long aisle to see the princess she was happy to call a new friend—Leia. Before she knew it they were directly in front of her, accepting their medals.

First was Han, who flashed Leia a wink. Then Luke, who could not shake his boyish grin. Then Chewbacca, who let out a growl of thanks. And finally, it was Tess' turn. Princess Leia stepped in front of her, medal in hand. Tess bowed her head slightly, allowing the princess to place the medal around her neck.

In conclusion of the ceremony, the four heroes of the rebellion turned to face the thunderous applause.


	9. Chapter 8 - Hoth (3 ABY)

_Just a short note for the readers :)_

_I have fun with photoshop when given the chance, so when I saw that you could make little posters for your stories I jumped at it. Check out the new poster! Leia is obvious, and if you didn't guess already, the girl in the pink shirt beside her is Tess (picture of me, actually, since I just happen to pass for Leia's sister). Of course, this is assuming I haven't changed the picture. I have a few I can alternate between, but for now I'm sticking with this one since the background is Hoth and we're currently on Hoth. _

* * *

**_Chapter 8_**

**_- - - - - 3 ABY - - - - -_**

**__****_- - - - - Rebellion Echo Base on Planet Hoth - - - - -_**

Never in her eleven years of life had Tess imagined she could be a hero of the Rebellion. Three years later, even more beyond her belief, at fourteen years old she was among the Rebellion on a remote base on the planet Hoth. That being addressed, it seemed far beneath her capabilities to constantly be the one to lead Han Solo to Leia Organa whenever their complicated relationship resulted in a grown-up game of hide-and-seek.

"She was in the command center, but last time she saw you coming she ducked into the storage room," Tess told Han. She held out her hand expectantly. "Five credits, please." Han gave her a look, then reluctantly pulled some credits out of his pocket and shoveled them into the teenager's hand.

Han stalked around the corner. Once he was far enough away, Tess pulled out her comlink.

"Leia?" she said. She got a response immediately.

"Han again?" asked her friend's voice.

"Yep. Go for the barracks. He knows about the storage room."

* * *

Tired with watching Han and Leia's disgusting love games and with no room in her pocket to squeeze more credits out of Han, Tess cut through the cargo transfer into the hangar where she knew she would find Luke.

It was hard to pick out her friend among the other rebels with identical snowsuits, but she recognized Luke as the only one with a lightsaber in his belt.

"Are you going out there?" she inquired, tentatively approaching his tauntaun and giving its neck a rub.

"Yep, checking for life readings," Luke told Tess, putting on his goggles. Tess hopped up on the tauntaun with ease, having practiced many a time these past several months. Her thick red snowsuit padded her from feeling the coarse skin of the animal. "Have you seen Han? He was supposed to be heading out, too."

"Nope, but I'll find him for five credits," Tess promised with a sly grin. Luke grinned back at her, clearly knowing her ways. He couldn't blame her, though—there was not much for a kid to do on a rebel base.

"Do you know why tauntauns smell so bad?" Tess asked. She promptly answered her own question. "They get rid of waste through their skin. Like our sweat, but theirs is just worse."

"Somebody's been spending some time on the informational holographics in the command center," Luke mused. He lifted Tess of his tauntaun with ease and took her place.

"Leia made me," Tess admitted. "Can I go with you? Checking for life readings doesn't last that long and you don't even go that far. Please?"

"I don't think Leia would like that," Luke told her, shaking his head. Tess rolled her eyes.

"She's not my mother," Tess reminded the man who she had come to think of as an older brother. "I was a rebel hero at the Battle of Yavin, too, just like you, Han, Chewie, and Leia. But somehow the fact that I'm fourteen makes my tagging along with the rebellion a babysitting gig. I haven't been a child for a long time, Luke."

Luke narrowed his eyes at her.

"Says the girl who spends all day messing with Han and Leia's heads, making those two go crazier than they already are."

"They just make it so easy…" Tess sighed, chuckling a bit.

"It's all about control," Luke reminded her. Tess went to a nearby tauntaun and gave it a piece of an omnibar from her pocket.

"Don't speak Jedi with me, Skywalker," she boomed with an exaggerated deep voice. Luke shook his head with a laugh.

"I'll be back soon," he assured Tess. "And go easy on Leia. She cares about you, Tess. She just wants you to stay safe."

* * *

Han left later than Luke, so it surprised Tess when the smuggler arrived sooner than her other friend. She had her nose pinched shut with one hand as she bathed a small tauntaun with the other.

"Did you see Luke when you were out there?" Tess asked. Han pulled his mask, gloves, and hood off.

"Talked to him," Han told her. "He hasn't come back yet?"

"No," Tess informed Han. "Leia kept trying to reach him. He always signs in, so the fact that his name isn't on there means he's not back. Besides, with you and Leia always hiding from each other, I know every place of this—"

"Watch it, kid," Han snapped, not entirely serious. Tess could tell he wasn't one for the cold, which just made his bickering with Leia all the more entertaining.

"Tess, put your hood back on before your ears turn blue and fall off," came a familiar voice from behind them. Tess didn't even need to turn around to know that it was Leia. She approached the two of them, her dark hair in a perfect braid crown around her head and her snowsuit matching the snow itself.

Tess, however, wore her hair in a small, loose braid pulling half of her hair back and cascading down with the wavy loose hair. That, and her red snowsuit stood out among the whites and tans. She always insisted on being quite the individual, but according to Leia that just made her more childish.

There was a time when Tess admired Leia more than anyone. She was a Princess, and the daughter of the closest thing Tess ever had to a father. That admiration was not completely gone, but after spending three years with her—though Tess was grateful for a place to stay with the closest thing she had to family—Leia had somehow convinced herself that Tess needed parenting.

Sure, Tess had not grown up as royalty with the highest levels of education that Alderaan could offer, but she was fourteen years old and more than capable of taking care of herself.

Still, if anything, Leia was more like a big sister to Tess deep down. She did love Leia like a sister and she was sure Leia felt the same, but they did get on each other's nerves. Most of the newer rebels even confused them as sisters. The resemblance between them was bafflingly strong for two who were not related. Even Tess could see that.

Suddenly, the time of day struck fear in Tess' stomach.

"Leia, its almost nighttime," Tess said worriedly. "The temperature's about to drop like crazy and the shield doors won't even be up for much longer."

"I know," Leia sighed, putting a hand on the collar of Tess' snowsuit and rubbing her shoulder. "But you know Luke, he's just curious. He'll come in at the last minute perfectly fine."

Han started replacing his snow gear.

"I'm going out to check the perimeter just in case," he decided aloud.

"Han, your tauntaun will freeze at the temperatures it will be out there an hour from now," Leia reminded him nervously. "And we can't send rescues after the shield doors close."

"I'll be back with Luke or not at all," Han promised. He kicked the sides of his tauntaun and was soon lost in the white snow.

"Somehow I don't find that comforting!" Leia called after him. She sighed deeply and turned to Tess. "You hungry?" she asked. Tess shook her head. Leia took the girl by the shoulders and started leading her towards the barracks. "It's gonna be cold here soon—you should probably head off to bed."

"I will," Tess said with a nod, compliantly making her way towards the barracks. "Goodnight."

"Night," Leia called back with a soft smile. She made her way back to the command center.

However, as soon as Leia was gone, Tess swung her pack on, hopped on a tauntaun, and raced after Han in hopes of helping him find Luke.


	10. Chapter 9 - Hoth (3 ABY)

Tess found herself wrapping her hands around her tauntaun's neck as her fingers slowly lost feeling and she could not even tell if she was holding on to the reins or not. She looked up at the sky. She knew she didn't have long until nightfall. She was about to set up the tarp in her pack, but before she even dragged it off her shoulders she saw a gray mound in the distance.

To Tess' relief, she neared it and saw that it was what she expected—a cave. Then her nerves spiked when she remembered what creature typically inhabited caves on Hoth—wampas.

Mustering her courage, Tess slowly entered the cave. She knew that if it was uninhabited, it would be the perfect place to allow her tauntaun to hibernate through the night—the only way it would survive the temperatures. And Tess, though well-equipped with a snowsuit—was still human and even with a tarp to block the wind speeds, even she was not guaranteed to last the night without the shelter of something like this cave.

Tess knew better than to trust the tauntaun not to make noise, so she put an omnibar in its mouth—the perfect treat to please for an omnivore like her tauntaun—and left it outside the cave.

Though the cave itself was white on the outside, darkness came fast on the inside. The white became gray, and the gray just became darker and darker. Looking further down the cave, she could see no ending, just a fade into black.

Tess listened as hard as she could, but the wind from outside was overpowering anything she could have heard. One of the distinct signs that a wampa was in the cave would be its loud chomping, but she wouldn't be able to hear that until she was too close. Tess tried another tactic. Wampas were known to suspend demobilized but live prey from the ceiling for later consumption.

As soon as Tess' eyes found the ceiling, they found the wampa's most recent capture—Luke. Checking her perimeter to make sure the creature was not nearby, Tess rushed to her friend.

"Luke!" she whispered nervously once near, touching his freezing cold face in attempt to wake him. "Luke, wake up!"

Sure enough, Luke's blue eyes showed themselves.

"Tess…? Where…?"

"We're in a wampa cave," Tess said as softly as she could, just in case the wampa was near. Luke suddenly remembered how he had come to be in this state and his eyes widened.

"Tess, you have to get out of here—its too dangerous," Luke insisted. He reached up towards his legs in attempt to free himself, but the ice was too strong. He then brought a hand to his belt. "My lightsaber…it's gone."

"I'll find it," Tess insisted, turning to look.

"No!" Luke snapped. He pointed ahead. Tess followed his finger.

Fear rose up in Tess' throat. Not only did she see the silver glow of Luke's lightsaber, but right beside it was the gigantic white wampa, paws soaked in red blood as he savagely consumed a tauntaun.

Tess turned back to Luke to ask him what to do. He was way ahead of her. Luke stretched out his hand with closed eyes. He was using the Force. Tess looked back towards the lightsaber, which shook in the ice but could not wiggle itself out.

It might have been unconscious. Maybe it was to soothe her anxiety. Instinct was a possibility, too. Regardless of the reason, Tess reached up and took Luke's hand. Suddenly, she felt a surge of something powerful—something beyond imagination—and the lightsaber flew into Luke's hand.

Tess didn't have time to contemplate what she had just felt. Luke detached himself from the ice of the cave ceiling and flipped himself to a stand.

Hearing the sound of the lightsaber, the wampa turned around with a roar. Luke nudged Tess slightly, indicating that she stay put, as he leapt forward and sliced off the wampa's arm with ease. His speed propelled by the Force, Luke grabbed Tess' hand.

"Run!"

* * *

In order to keep their tauntaun alive longer, both Tess and Luke agreed that they would walk alongside it. Their best chance of surviving the night was to find another cave, but that was still incredibly dangerous because most of those caves housed wampas just like the one they faced.

"You shouldn't have come," Luke called at Tess through the wind. "We could die out here—you know that?"

"Of course I know that!" Tess snapped, her voice shaking with cold.

"Tess…your nose is bleeding," Luke alerted her. He stopped the tauntaun, reached in his pocket for a cloth, and held it up to her face. "That happens a lot when it's this cold, but unless you want a nostril frozen shut making it even harder to breathe than it already is, I would wipe that down well."

Luke inspected the tauntaun for a moment. Tess could not see his face well through the goggles and hood but she knew he was frustrated.

"This is exactly why you shouldn't have come," Luke muttered.

"Because of a nosebleed?!" Tess snapped. "That could have just as easily happened to you! And if I wouldn't have woken you up in that cave, the wampa probably would have gotten to you first! You should be thankful that I came!"

Suddenly, their tauntaun let out a high-pitched wine and collapsed on the snow, dead. Luke hung his head with a labored sigh. He pulled out his lightsaber and cut into the tauntaun's belly.

"What are you doing?" Tess asked.

"It will keep you warm," Luke explained. "It will smell like hell, but that's better than freezing to death. Get over here."

"No."

"Tess—"

"Luke, wait," Tess assured him. She pulled her pack off her back and dragged two thick brown tarps out. Luke watched, not willing to admit that she came more prepared than him, as she secured one of the tarps on top of the snow and the other one on top of that tarp with an opening so that they get inside and stay warm under it.

After she finished setting up the small makeshift camp, she crossed to the dead tauntaun, then looked at Luke with disdain.

"You cut it too much," she groaned. She knelt and touched the now ice-hardened insides of the tauntaun, then wiped her hand off on her pants. "If you don't cut it little by little, it all meets the air too fast and freezes within minutes, Luke."

Again, Luke couldn't bear to be one-upped by a fourteen year old, so he made no comment on his mistake and lead Tess towards the tarp by her shoulders.

"Come on," he told her. "We need to get in there before we freeze to death."

* * *

The sound of someone yelling in the distance nudged Luke awake. It took him a moment to remember where he was. That moment was interrupted with anxiety when he saw that Tess was not under the tarp with him.

Luke tightened his goggles and exited the tarp tent.

"Tess!" he called, cupping his hands around his mouth. "Tess!"

She was not hard to see in her red snowsuit. Tess stood several feet away from the camp, yelling for help.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Luke demanded, grabbing her wrist and starting to drag her back to camp. "How long have you been out here?!"

When Tess turned around to face him, Luke could see that she had tears frozen to her cheeks. Her nose and ears were turning blue from cold.

"They need to find us!" she cried. "They just need to!"

"They will," Luke assured her. "Now get back into the tent."

"No!" Tess retorted. "I'm not just sitting and waiting! I'm not giving up!"

"Even if it kills you?!" Luke shouted, taking her by the shoulders and trying to shake her into realizing the danger of standing out here in the cold.

"It won't!" snapped Tess, teary-eyed. "I won't let it! Leia…she doesn't know!"

Luke looked at her a moment, confused.

"What doesn't Leia know?" he asked. Tess didn't respond at first. He looked at her a bit deeper. "Tess?"

"She doesn't know…how much I love her…" the fourteen-year-old sobbed. "I know I'm not always nice to her and I don't always listen, but you, Han, and Leia have been like my family for the past three years and Leia… I never told her that because I'm too busy doing the opposite of whatever she tells me to do. I mean—look! She told me to go to bed and now I'm in the middle of a snowy nowhere!"

Feeling she needed it, Luke wrapped Tess in a hug. She knew he wasn't one for many words, so Tess didn't really need them.

"Come on," he said gently. "Come back to the tent. It's morning now, they'll be sending a rescue squad before you know it."

Tess nodded and took his offered hand. She took about three steps towards the camp before her feet grew heavy, her head pounded, and her vision began to blur white.

"Is it…snowing…harder…?" she muttered breathlessly.

Suddenly, her legs fell out from beneath her and her vision went black.


	11. Chapter 10 - Hoth (3 ABY)

The two rebel ships that had retrieved the three survivors lost in the snow landed in the Echo Base hangar one after the other. Princess Leia rushed over anxiously. They had told her that her two friends were in poor condition, and she assumed they spoke of Luke and Han.

Leia had not seen Tess all day but that was not uncommon considering the teenager often wandered around the base. So when Han climbed out of the ship perfectly fine and the pilot handed him down a small frame in a familiar red snowsuit, Leia's heart almost stopped.

"What happened?!" Leia demanded frantically, rushing to Han's side and holding back her tears. Seeing Tess so pale and hanging so limply terrified her.

"Apparently, she went out to save Luke soon after I did," Han explained, mad at himself that, as close as he was to the base, he had not seen her leave it. "She found Luke and built shelter, but in the morning Luke found her outside it calling for help. It looks like she was out there for at least half the night."

"Oh no…" Leia whispered, her emotions getting the best of her. "And Luke?" She turned her around and saw the man who was piloting the ship that found them helping a barely conscious Luke. Like Han and Leia, they were taking him to the medical bay.

"Attacked by a wampa," Han explained. "He has some nasty gashes but not much cold damage. Luke said they would have died if Tess hadn't brought the shelter."

As if to clarify that it was true, Leia looked at the seemingly lifeless form. She brushed Tess' hair aside and planted a kiss on her frozen forehead.

"You're going to be alright," she whispered.

* * *

Leia turned to the medical droid when they reached the medical bay.

"You will give this girl the upmost treatment you can offer," the princess demanded. "Understand?"

"Of course, Princess Leia, we—"

"This girl is my family, understand?" Leia continued. "Her last name is Naberrie—she was related to my biological mother. Please be certain that she is treated just as I would be."

Tess was taken from Han's arms by one of the medical workers. Luke was already in a bed, getting covered in blankets and attached to vitality monitors so he could warm up before an eminent dunk in the bacta tank. But Luke was strong—Leia knew he would be fine. Several other medics entered the room.

"Do all of you hear me?!" Leia shouted at the medical bay. "This girl will be treated like royalty! If something happens to her…"

Her voice breaking, Han saw the pain in her eyes before Leia even realized what she was feeling. He wrapped a hand around Leia's shoulder. Normally, the princess would resist him, but instead she covered her face with her hands and turned towards him. Han watched as they took Tess to a separate room, holding Leia as she cried.

* * *

"Master Luke, Sir, it's so good to see you fully functional again," the golden droid C-3PO told his master. Artoo added his own beeping expression of relief for Luke's recovery.

Luke nodded absent-mindedly at the droids, his mind focused on the fourteen-year-old who remained unconscious in the bed on the other side of the room. He was so used to her bumbling about the base, exploring the ships in the hangar, feeding the tauntauns, and running errands for people in the command center. Seeing Tess so lifeless really bothered him.

As if that was not enough for him to be concerned about, Leia had not left Tess' side all day. The princess had fallen asleep at the end of the bed about an hour ago, but now she was coming to and trying to play it off as if she had been awake the whole time.

"Leia?" Luke called, sitting himself up. She looked over in acknowledgement, her eyes tired and puffy. "I heard you say something when they were bringing me and Tess in here…about her being related to you? Was that just to get them to pay more attention while taking care of her?"

Leia wanted more than anything to say yes. It would have been so much easier. But she could not lie to Luke even if she wanted to.

"No," she admitted with a sigh. "She doesn't even know it herself." Leia shifted in her chair, clearly uncomfortable that she had been holding on to this secret so long. "Three years ago," she continued. "When she finally told me her name was Tess Naberrie—that's when I knew."

Luke seemed confused.

"The royal Naberrie family on Naboo?" he asked. "Was your family related to them?"

"No…" Leia breathed. "Just me. Remember when I told you I was adopted? Well, my birth mother—her name was Padme Naberrie. I wasn't sure Tess was related to her until I saw a list of the names of several members of the royal Naberrie family in her notebook. Padme Naberrie was on top. She must have looked up her last name and of course found Padme first—she was a young queen and later a Senator, so she was by far the most famous member of the Naberrie's." Leia took a moment to wipe a tear that fell down her cheek. Luke allowed himself a moment to take it all in.

"Could Tess be your sister?" he asked tentatively. Leia shook her head.

"Padme Naberrie died when I was very young," the princess explained. "Tess is fourteen, so she wasn't born until eight years after my mother died. But Tess looks exactly like me when I was her age, so I would guess she was an illegitimate child of one of Padme's brothers or sisters. Maybe they wanted to give her away or put her up for adoption, but my father got word and wouldn't have of it. That might be why he made sure she had guardians up until she started staying with us."

Suddenly, the idea that Bail Organa was a part of Tess' life—which Tess and Leia had told him soon after the Battle of Yavin three years ago—made much more sense. It explained how Leia was so protective of Tess, too. Luke smiled to himself.

"What?" Leia asked, unable to resist smiling back.

"It just makes sense," Luke told her. "You know…through the Force, I can often sense people, and each person has a sort of signature. And out of everyone I've met, the only person whose signature was anywhere near as strong as yours was Tess."

Leia grinned at him, almost blushing.

"I have a strong signature?"

"I guess it runs in your family," Luke shrugged.

Making his usual loud entrance, Han stepped into the room and came to Luke's side. Chewbacca followed close behind him.

"How 'ya feeling, kid?" he sauntered. "You don't look so bad to me. In fact, you look strong enough to pull the ears off a Gundark."

"Thanks to me," sang a familiar voice from her medical bed across the room. Tess sat up slowly as her eyes adjusted to being awake.

Leia jumped to a stand and rushed to Tess' side. The princess held herself back for a moment, not wanting to overwhelm the kid, but when Tess' eyes welled up with the mutual relief that she was okay and back with her friends, Leia could not resist wrapping her arms tightly around her.

"I was so worried you—"

"I'm fine," Tess promised, hugging Leia back just as tight. She couldn't put her relief into words, and when she thought to hard about it, it just brought more tears to her eyes. "I thought I would never see you again." Tess felt Leia's comforting hand on the back of her head, stroking her hair. The princess pulled away a moment to look into Tess' eyes.

"You know I love you, right?" she said softly. Tess immediately nodded and hugged Leia again.

"I love you, too."

"You scared the hell out of us, kid," Han interjected. Somehow, he noticed his burning need to yell at Tess for leaving the base disappeared completely as soon as her big, brown eyes opened up.

Luke nudged his friend for his insensitive front.

"We're glad you're okay, Tess," said Luke.

As if to retaliate from almost sounding sentimental, Han crossed over to Leia.

"Well, your worship, it looks like you managed to keep me around for a little while longer."

Leia pulled away from Tess and squeezed her hand as if to excuse herself before dealing with Han. She scooted off the bed.

"I had nothing to do with it," the princess insisted. "General Rieekan thinks it's dangerous for any ships to leave the system until we've activated the energy shield."

Luke and Tess exchanged looks as if to say 'Here we go again'.

"That's a good story," Han threw back with a smug grin. "I think you just can't bear to let a gorgeous guy like me out of your sight."

Leia shook her head slightly.

"I don't know where you get your delusions, laserbrain."

"Something he picked up on those smuggling expeditions, I'm sure," Tess suggested, planting her hands behind her head so she could enjoy the show.

Chewie let out a deep chuckle. Luke barely suppressed his own laughter. Han shot a sharp look back at his furry copilot.

"Laugh it up, fuzz-ball," he muttered. "But you should have seen us alone in the south passage." He crossed over to Leia and wrapped an arm around her. "She expressed her true feelings for me."

Leia's eyes went wide with embarrassment and anger. She bit out her words at him.

"Wha—Why…you stuck up, half-witted, scruffy-looking, nerf-herder!"

"Who's scruffy looking?" Han demanded. He crossed back to Luke with a slight grin of success. "I must have hit her pretty close to the mark to get her all riled up like that, huh kid?"

"Nah, it doesn't take much to get her like that," Tess interjected. Leia shot her a quick glare and the kid held her hands up in surrender. Then the princess nodded slightly at Han as she walked over to Luke.

"Well I guess you don't know everything about women yet."

At that, Leia pulled Luke into a powerful kiss. Tess smacked her own forehead and let her head drop to the pillow.

"I give up!" she confessed in exaggerated defeat. "I give up on trying to make sense of all three of your relationship issues because clearly they will never make sense!"

Ignoring Tess, Leia pulled away from the kiss, shot Han one last look, then left the room. Han looked after her, then back at Luke, then Tess.

"You guys take it easy," he said quickly. As expected, he promptly sought after Leia.

Tess chuckled at Luke, who had his hands behind his head as if he was the king of the world.

"You know she likes Han, right?" the fourteen-year-old reminded him. "Heck, if you weren't in here it could have been on of the medics she made out with."

"Yeah, I know," he told her, his grin unwavering as he looked in Tess' direction. "And for the record, that was definitely not making out—just a kiss. Just glad to be of service in Leia's mind games until she wakes up and smells the smuggler."

"Ew," Tess said, wrinkling her nose. "I mean, I want them together, too, but there is a reason that 'smugger' is not a scent you see in perfumes." Realizing how revolting that analogy actually was, Luke grimaced.

"Yeah, you're right."


	12. Chapter 11 - Hoth (3 ABY)

"The first transport is away," an announcement throughout the Echo Base announced. Tess could hear cheers coming from the hangar. Everyone—dressed in their orange bodysuits—seemed to be heading there. One stopped and ruffled Tess' hair.

"Hey, Tess," he called, walking backwards as he made his way to the hangar with the rest of the pilots. "Missed you at Princess' transport speech!"

"Aw I missed it?" Tess groaned, laughing slightly, waving goodbye to him. "Good luck, Dack!"

"You, too! Get yourself a transport, kid!"

Tess reached the command center and scanned the heads of people on the information systems until she found Leia. She knew enough about the technology in the command center to know that everything on Leia's screen pointed to multiple non-rebellion arrivals on Hoth. "Is it the Empire?"

Leia looked up in surprise, removing her headset.

"Tess, I told you to get on the transport," she sighed. "We caught some imperial transmissions. It's not safe here anymore, and I can't worry about you while I'm handling this."

"You don't need to worry about me," Tess reminded Leia, sitting down in the seat beside her. "And I'm just as stubborn as you are. I'm staying until we can leave on a transport together."

Leia groaned in frustration.

"Tess—" she began. Then Leia caught a glimpse of Tess' face and realized she had more important things to do than argue. That, and Leia knew this was Tess' way of making sure the princess got on a transport, too, rather than spending so much time wrapped up in finalizing things at the command center. It was actually pretty smart of the kid—and it sure didn't hurt to know you were cared about when rebellion efforts as dedicated as Leia's were often left unnoticed.

Knowing she had the temporary okay to be there for now, Tess sat back in her chair.

"Sorry I missed the transport speech," she whispered with a grin.

"Just the first group, I still have one more," Leia said, smirking. She was clearly aware of Tess' insincerity. "I'm sure it was torturous knowing you missed hopping on Wedge's shoulders and making faces at me."

"Just because I like your beautiful smile better than your speech face," Tess reminded her innocently. "And maybe a slight bit of revenge for every time you left me to be babysat by Threepio when we were on the Minos Cluster last year."

"Sure," Leia chuckled.

Amused, General Rieekan grinned slightly from behind the princess. He was always surprised that after years of knowing Leia, the only person that could ever suppress her stress so effectively in situations like this was a fourteen-year-old kid.

"General?" said a rebel across the room. Tess and Leia listened in as Rieekan walked over and stood over the man's screen. "General, there's a fleet of star destroyers coming out of hyperspace in sector four."

"Reroute all power to the energy shield," the general ordered. He then crossed to another officer and lowered his voice, but not so low that Tess and Leia could not hear him. "We've got to hold them until all transports are away. Prepare for gunned assault."

Tess and Leia exchanged knowing glances. That wasn't the first time they heard that phrase from Rieekan. They knew those words meant the Empire was closing in on their rebel base.

* * *

It did not take long for the echo base to become officially under attack. At this point, the command center was nearly in ruins and rumbled periodically like an upset stomach.

For at least the twelfth time, Leia gave Tess a familiar look.

"Nope," Tess retorted. "I told you, I'm not leaving until you are." The teenager crossed her arms stubbornly. Lines of worry and frustration showed up on Leia's face. Tess did not want her to be so frustrated, but after a close call like nearly being frozen to death a week ago, she wasn't about to be apart from Leia even for one flight.

Suddenly, the base shook heavily and a quick red flash could be seen down the hall. They heard a cascade of loud thumps as if several large rocks were dropped to the ground one after the other. Leia immediately pulled Tess closer to her as a large command screen detached from its dock and crashed to the ground.

Leia sat Tess down in the nearest chair.

"Stay there," she ordered her. Tess knew now was not a moment to distract Leia by arguing back. The princess looked over the shoulder of an officer at an information screen just as Tess noticed Han showing up in the control room doorway. His eyes searched the room nervously until he found Leia and Tess.

"Are you two alright?" he asked. Leia's head whipped around.

"Why are you still here?" the princess demanded.

"I heard the command center had been hit," Han explained, genuinely concerned as he made his way through the rubble. Only then did Tess realize just how severely the front half of the command center was damaged. It almost looked caved in.

"You got your clearance to leave," Leia snapped back. Han reached Tess' side and put a hand on her shoulder, nudging her to a stand.

"Sure, I'll leave," he grumbled, clearly not in the mood for Leia banter. "But first I'm going to take you and Tess to your ship."

"Take Tess with you," Leia ordered.

"What?!" Tess snapped. "No, I'm leaving with you. I told you that."

"Han, please!" Leia begged. "Take her out of here! I need to handle this, but I can't do it until I know she's safe!"

"What about your safety?!" Tess shot back. Han nodded in agreement.

"Listen to the kid."

Threepio, covered in white debris, tapped Princess Leia's arm with his golden hand.

"Your Highness, we must take this last transport. It's our only hope!" he begged. But Leia was all business, stuck in battle mode. She stomped over debris to a neighboring information screen.

"Send all troops from sector twelve to the south fold to protect the fighters!"

Suddenly, another explosion sounded and once again the room shook. A pathetic Threepio fell backwards with a cry out and had to be caught by Han. An announcement sounded throughout the base.

"Imperial troops have entered the base! Imperial troops have ente—" And the announcement broke off with a burst of static. Tess, worry widening her eyes, waited nervously on the other side of the room.

"Leia, we have to go! We've both been captured by imperial troops before," Tess reminded her. "And I'd rather not meet Darth Spontaneous-Force-Choke today."

Han reached Leia's side and grabbed her arm.

"Come on," he said. He wasn't going to take no for an answer, and Leia knew this really was her last chance to get her and Tess off the base safely. She turned to give one last note to the officers who remained in the command center.

"Evacuate the remaining ground staff," she told them as Han pulled Leia forward and Tess lead the way out.

* * *

By the time Han, Leia, and Tess had reached the hallway leading to the hangar, the echo base seemed to be under full attack. Tess was leading, but then she looked behind her and groaned with frustration.

"Threepio took a wrong turn," she muttered, turning around. "I'll be right back."

"Hurry!" Leia said.

As soon as Tess found Threepio and put him back on the right track, she heard a rumble, a crash, and familiar scream.

"Leia!" Tess cried out, running back down the hall.

"We're okay!" the princess cried back. Looking behind her, the fourteen-year-old saw that the hallway had collapsed and blocked their exit.

Han started pulling both girls in the opposite direction while speaking on his comlink.

"Transport, this is Solo," he said diplomatically. "Let her take off, I can't get to you. I'll get them out on the Falcon."

Tess was running too fast to express her excitement. Not only was the Falcon a thousand times better than the standard transports, but Chewie owed her 72 credits and Tess knew she could double that by beating him at yet another game of Pazaak.


	13. Chapter 12 - Millennium Falcon (3 ABY)

_**- - - - - The Millennium Falcon - - - - -**_

Two left turns of the corridor and the Millennium Falcon was finally in sight. The three raced up the ramp with Threepio trailing close behind them and Chewbacca waiting for them inside.

"Did Luke get out alright?" Tess asked no one in particular. She secured herself into a seat with acceleration straps before Leia could tell her to do it.

"He's fine," Leia told her. She didn't officially know that he had safely made his way off to the Dagobah System to do whatever he refused to tell her, but she felt it and therefore responded as such. She didn't have time to think too much about it.

Han started fiddling with the ship's controls in a manner that he only used when the ship had not been very trustworthy lately. The Falcon always had the worst timing with its needs for maintenance.

"Would it help if I got out and pushed?" Leia spat. Tess rolled her eyes at Leia's constant need to bicker with the smuggler-turned-captain.

"It might," he retorted sarcastically, ignoring whatever the golden droid was trying to pester him with.

Han made his way swiftly to the cockpit and Leia followed. Threepio trailed close behind, as always, leaving the Wookie and Tess in the main room. They exchanged glances.

"You owe me 72 credits," she reminded him, pulling out her deck of Pazaak cards and shuffling them. "Double or nothing?"

The 7-foot furball shook his head vigorously. Before he could growl his way out of the credits he owed the fourteen-year-old, Han called him over.

Without Chewbacca there to entertain her, Tess figured she'd just turn off Threepio and take his seat up in the cockpit.

By the time Tess got to the cockpit, the fourth seat had not been taken so she snagged it before the golden droid came back. Once again, she faced the race of securing the acceleration straps before Leia told her to.

"We might need Threepio up here, why didn't you stay by the lounge seats?" Leia asked. "You'd probably be more comfortable there."

"We're on my ship now, where I'm boss, and I say Tess stays," Han ordered, only half-jokingly. "You know goldenrod won't sit down anywhere where he can't be fastened in and with these four seats taken that puts him far away from me, just where I like him."

"You just say that because you can never find his power off button," Leia snapped back.

"Um…could we get away from the Empire before you guys start fighting again?" Tess suggested, her eyes widening at the sight of the star destroyers and other Empire ships following them. Leia followed her glance, then shot Han a look.

"They're getting closer," she warned. Han reached forward towards the controls.

"Oh yeah? Watch this!"

Han Solo flipped the control forward. Tess held on to her seat, expecting the jump to light speed before the ship hummed, then the humming decelerated—a clear indicator that the attempt failed. As if things could not get any worse, Threepio entered the cockpit.

"If I may say so, sir," the annoying droid began. "I noticed earlier the hyperdrive motor has been damaged. It's impossible to go to light speed!"

Muttering something about being in trouble, Han raced out the bulkhead door.

"You know, sometimes you should just spit these things out rather than spending so much time getting our attention," Tess suggested to Threepio with clenched teeth. She hopped to her feet, knowing that leaving Chewie to hand Han the tools would just end badly.

By the time Tess caught up with Han, he was already fiddling with the controls and Chewie had already messed up one tool hand-off and rather than looking for the right one, he set the tool box by the opening in the floor that Han had ducked into.

"I'm here!" Tess told him, reaching for the toolbox.

"Tess, go back to the cockpit," he grumbled, tucking his head back into the floor opening that housed the controls. "The last thing I need is a smart-mouth kid to deal with right now!"

The ship shook as something hit the Falcon, moving the tool box to the point that it almost fell on Han's head. After that last comment he made, Tess justified kicking it in as a means for him to learn his lesson about underestimating her.

The plasteel toolbox fell directly onto the smuggler, who cried out in pain and raised his head out of the compartment. Tess pointed an accusatory finger at the Wookie.

"Chewie!" Han growled.

Again, the Millennium Falcon shook with some sort of impact. Tess barely managed to stay on two feet as she watched Han's face change.

"That wasn't a laser blast," he concluded. "Something hit us."

"Han, get up here!" Leia called from the cockpit.

After so much racing about the ship, Tess was almost reconsidering getting out of everyone's hair by sitting in the lounge chair with accelerator restraints towards the other side of the ship. Han, Tess, and Chewie returned to their cockpit seats, suddenly facing their next challenge even before Leia called it. "Asteroids!"

To everyone else's dismay, Han and Chewie started propelling the ship straight into the asteroid field.

"What are you doing?" Leia demanded, standing over Han's chair like the back-seat flier she always insisted on being. "You're not actually going into an asteroid field!"

"They'd be crazy to follow us, wouldn't they?" Han suggested. Leia's eyes widened as she realized he was serious.

"You don't have to do this to impress me."

"Is this because you think I kicked the toolbox onto your head?" Tess interjected. "Because I told you that was Chewie."

Chewbacca growled a whining protest. Threepio entered the room, once again just making a bad situation more annoying.

"Sir, the chances of successfully—"

Tess snapped off his power before he could continue. Han took a moment to turn to the kid.

"You're my new favorite."


	14. Chapter 13 - Millennium Falcon (3 ABY)

Following a surprisingly easy escape through the asteroid field that easily destroyed the imperial fighters without much effort on the Falcon's part, Han got the outrageous idea of landing inside one of the larger, more cavernous asteroid. Fortunately, Leia could talk him out of it. Tess wanted them out of the asteroid field so much that she didn't even call Leia out when the princess' main argument on getting out of there was that they had a kid on board and couldn't take such risks.

They stayed on the asteroid just long enough to plug Threepio into the hyperdrive and for Tess to walk in on a make-out session between Leia and Han, after which she exasperatedly insisted the two make up their minds between liking and hating each other. The second Threepio isolated the reverse power flex coupling, they were off.

* * *

Tess woke up from a nap in the one of the bunks on the Falcon and made her way to the cockpit with sleep lingering in her eyes. She immediately noticed the beautiful orange clouds.

"Whoa…" she whispered. She took her seat behind Chewbacca, who growled a good morning. "Where are we?"

"Visiting one of Han's friends, apparently," Leia explained.

"Well, that's guaranteed to go horribly."

"Glad to see your nap hasn't affected your sarcasm, kid," Han spat, already annoyed with the landing operator. "No," he repeated into the system. "I don't have a landing permit. I'm trying to reach Lando Calrissia—" Two blasts to the ship interrupted his sentence. "Whoa, wait a minute! Let me explain!"

"Well that was sooner than expected," Tess mused. "I thought we had at least an hour before failure."

As if on cue, they suddenly got granted permission to land. Tess hopped up between Leia and Han.

"Can we all do code names again?"

"No," the two of them said in unison. Chewbacca growled in agreement.

"Come on," Tess begged. "The last time wasn't that bad. Everyone believed you guys were a married couple because you argue all the time, I passed for Leia's daughter—"

"If I had you when I was eight," Leia interjected. "Besides, Han knows this person. The only person who gets the code name is you, considering the Empire decided to go heavy on the advertising with the infamous kid who escaped the Death Star."

"Ah, my bounty," Tess reminisced sarcastically. "All the crimes they came up with—thievery, deception, smuggling, all the way to the murder of imperial soldiers—how is someone going to believe that when my sketch made me look like I was five years old?"

"Yeah, well you still look like that," chuckled Han. Tess glared at him, then turned to Leia.

"Come on, you make up a code name too, its boring alone," Tess begged. "We could be sisters from Naboo—people always believe we're sisters. I'll be Inna again. What do you want your name to be?"

"No, Tess," Leia insisted. "No code names for me. Same cover story as usual. You're Inny Organa, my cousin."

"Sister," Tess demanded. "More embarrassing childhood stories to share."

"Fine," Leia sighed, throwing her head back in mental exhaustion. "You are going to give me premature gray hairs, Tess."

"Perfect. Then we'll have more fun when we do the married couple cover story because you'll finally look old enough."


	15. Chapter 14 - Bespin (3 ABY)

_To the readers,_

_Just a quick update. Some of you might have noticed this, but around the time we arrived in Hoth I realized writing in third person limited to Tess wasn't going to work unless I make sure Tess gets into every scene I want to include. So until Hoth, it was all Tess. Up until now, I just kind of did third person all over the place, going into everyone's thoughts. Now, I'm going to return to first person limited, but I'll switch back and forth between Tess and Leia, maybe even some other people, all separated by a page break. Just wanted to show you I kind of had an idea of what I'm doing. Emphasis on the kind of. I want to make sure I can fill in the blanks for scenes like when Tess was unconscious after getting too cold on Hoth, and I also needed to somehow bring up the fact that Leia knew Tess was at least related to her, stuff like that. _

_I'm glad everyone loves Tess so much! I was so nervous writing her for several reasons. One, I tried writing a Star Wars FanFiction before until I realized that I was atrocious as portraying the characters—particularly Luke and Han. Two, new characters are not so well-received in FanFiction, especially ones that become so prominent in the storyline. Three, Tess is me. I had a dream the day before I started writing this that I was Leia's long-lost sister and that dream included several of the details in this story. I just had to write it down, and before I knew it I had a FanFiction! Tess is even my real name (Avery Taylor is a pen name). That's even me in the story's picture! _

_Thank you everyone so much for reading and especially for your kind and constructive comments,_

_Love, _

_The Real Tess_

* * *

******- - - - - Bespin - - - - -**

**- - - - - Cloud City - - - - -**

The orange clouds of the planet Bespin were even more magnificent than the art Tess had seen in some old books that her old guardian Inny kept on their cottage in Dantooine. The group descended the Millennium Falcon's ramp and suddenly it was as if they were part of the sky. Tess had never been to a planet like this before, unlike her well-travelled companions.

"Oh, no one to meet us," Threepio pointed out. Tess glanced at the door expectantly before sensing Leia's unease. Then, Tess herself felt her own surge of uncertainty that she couldn't explain.

"I don't like this," Leia pointed out.

"Me neither," agreed Tess. Han rolled his eyes and turned to face the two of them.

"Well, what would you like?"

"Well," Threepio offered. "They did let us land."

"Look," Han stated, looking between Leia and Tess. "Don't worry. Everything's going to be fine. Trust me."

Before Tess could list the many reasons Han had inadvertently given for them to distrust him, the door leading out to their landing platform swooshed open.

"See?" Han said, nodding towards the door. "My friend."

Tess and Leia exchanged glances as Han approached the man who he claimed was his friend. The princess leaned over to Tess.

"Inna Organa, my sister, fourteen years old," Leia reminded her. "But if we can, let's try to leave out the last names."

"Sixteen," Tess corrected. Leia gave her a look.

"Have fun getting someone to believe that."

A great, friendly-sounding laugh came from Han Solo's old buddy, but something about him still did not sit right with Tess. Leia seemed even more apprehensive. The two men hugged and sparked up a conversation immediately. Assuming now was a good enough time as any, Leia, Tess, Chewbacca, and Threepio caught up with Han and his old friend.

Han's friend—Lando, Tess recalled—was a dark-skinned man with short, curly black hair. He was well kept and well dressed in a dark blue suit. His smile was large and friendly, but it changed when his eyes found Leia.

"Well, hello, what have we here?" he said with a gentlemanly suave. "Welcome. I'm Lando Calrissian. I'm the administrator of this facility. And who might you be?"

"Leia," she replied, grinning modestly.

"Welcome, Leia," hummed Calrissian. His words were definitely bordering seductive.

Tess exchanged glances with Chewie, holding back a grin. Maybe it was because when all of her peers were experimenting with their teenage hormones, Leia was running for Senator of Alderaan. Whatever the cause, it always amazed Tess when fellow rebels or any man for that matter complimented Leia—not because she did not deserve the compliments, but because she was so surprised at them.

Take Han for example. He had obviously developed romantic feelings for Leia. That was two years ago. Seeing the banter between the princess and the smuggler, one might guess that Han was just wasting his time with someone he knew he couldn't have. But Tess saw the inside view—Han saw through Leia.

Han saw the woman who needed him there, but couldn't express it. The woman who used her work in the rebellion as an excuse not to drop all defenses and give love a chance. Tess knew better than anyone. Not only did she practically live with Leia for three years, but for a rebel who had been hiding from the rebellion since even before the Battle of Yavin, the princess had very few girl friends to rant to so the job fell to Tess.

* * *

Once the group settled in to the elaborate room they were provided, Tess and Leia took the time to change out of their dirty jumpsuits into more appropriate attire. Leia fashioned her hair into two hoops of braids at the sides of her head and a small bun near the top. She wore an elegant red jumpsuit with a long, flowing, sand-colored vest.

Tess wore a similar jumpsuit but instead chose a teal one. Leia helped her tame her curls so she could wear her hair mostly down, as she liked it. They were grateful to have a place to freshen up after seeing how elegant everyone looked on Cloud City compared to their fresh-out-of-an-escape-from-the-Empire grunginess.

Tess found herself on the verge of twiddling her thumbs, sitting restlessly on the white couch in the room the group was provided. Leia returned from a walk about the facility.

"Still no sign of Threepio?" Tess asked. Leia shook her head and began pacing about the room. In all honestly, she was kind of glad the droid had disappeared, or else he would eminently end up as her babysitter.

"He'll turn up," Tess assured the princess.

Leia sighed and collapsed on the couch beside Tess.

"Maybe I'm just being paranoid," she began. "But I have a weird feeling about this place. And Threepio going missing definitely is not helping."

Tess nodded absent-mindedly. She had a bad feeling about this place, too. She couldn't explain why, but Tess knew that these intuitions that she and Leia sometimes had were almost always right.

Those feelings were most unwelcome now, though, because it was the first time in a long time that things seemed good. Leia had not been too overprotective, Tess was enjoying looking out the windows and reading information available on such a beautiful planet as Bespin, and most surprisingly, Han and Leia were getting along—even sharing a kiss here and there.

Tess liked to imagine that one day, she, Leia, Han, Luke, and Chewbacca would eventually calm down with their adventures at least a little. She could see Han and Leia getting married and having a kid or two, Luke furthering his Jedi training, and Chewbacca tagging along like some crazy uncle. It would just be nice to have somewhere to come home to. Still, Tess often wondered where her place would be in that scenario.

She had the same kinds of questions with Uncle Bail. Why did he even keep her around? What was she to him? She knew he loved her, but what made him take care of her in the first place? Now she was thinking the same things about Leia, Han, and Luke.

"Leia?" Tess asked tentatively. The princess looked over in response. "Why… um…" Her voice trailed off as she second-guessed the questions she wanted to ask. "I'm… I was wondering…I noticed the information systems here seemed pretty extensive. Would you be okay if I used them to…try to find out where I come from?" Tess bit her lip in anticipation of the answer.

Leia was definitely caught off-guard by the question.

"I don't want to leave you and Han and Luke," Tess added quickly. "I swear. I just…I always wondered if I had any family left, you know? You were adopted. Don't you ever think about that?"

"I used to," Leia admitted. "Every once and a while. Especially when I was around your age. I really needed a mother and since my adoptive one had died, my father—your Uncle Bail—he told me about my birth mother. He even showed me some information on her. Answered some questions. It helped to know where I came from, but I was lucky."

"How so?" asked Tess.

"Because my birth mother was an amazing person," Leia explained. "That would have been a much more damaging experience if she was some thief or criminal who could not deal with a kid."

Tess shuffled uncomfortably in her chair. Leia was obviously holding something back, and Tess was anxious to hear it.

"Uncle Bail said that the Naberrie family was a family he knew," Tess brought up cautiously. "Did you know them?"

Tess could tell she hit the nail on the head where Leia's restraint was concerned. Whatever the princess was neglecting to tell her, she had just asked the perfect question to figure it out.

"Not officially," Leia explained carefully. "But in a way, yes." The princess took a deep breath. She met eyes with Tess and took her hand. "Tess… maybe I should have told you this earlier… but my biological mother was in the Naberrie family, too. We are actually related." Leia scanned Tess' eyes as she took in the news.

"How long have you known?" Tess wondered aloud.

"Since the moment I saw you," Leia told her with a grin, squeezing her hand. "But officially when I saw you had written down a list of names from the Naberrie family, and I just put two and two together."

"So…we're like…cousins or something?" asked Tess, still taking this all in. She didn't feel very attached to the situation—it was almost as if it was happening to someone else. Tess always thought that her mother's name being Padme Naberrie was just a coincidence—some woman with the same name as the former queen and Senator. But as Leia said it, somehow Tess knew it to be true.

"Something like that," Leia said with a nod. She leaned forward and gave Tess a kiss on the forehead. "But you know I love you like a little sister, no matter who Padme Naberrie was to your mother."

Tess straightened up in surprise.

"Wait…Padme Naberrie was your mother, too?" Tess blurted. Leia's face twisted in confusion.

"What do you mean?" Leia asked. "You were told your mother was Padme Naberrie? That's impossible."

"How is it impossible?" Tess questioned. She tried not to show it, but Leia's comment was like a kick in the gut. Was she lied to about her mother's identity all this time?

Leia frowned in sympathy for the fourteen-year-old, squeezing her hand again. Tess didn't notice, but her eyes started to form tears. Leia wiped one off her cheek.

"Tess…" the princess began carefully. "Padme Naberrie was my mother… but she died soon after giving birth to me. That was eight years before you were born."

Tess' eyes seemed to gaze off a mile away. Leia wrapped the girl in a hug.

"I don't know why my father told you that was your mother's name," Leia began softly, holding Tess. "But I promise you we'll figure this out. I know you're my family, Tess. I can feel it. That will never change, no matter what we find." Leia then pulled away from the hug and took Tess' face in her hands. "As soon as we leave here, I will contact everyone I know who might be able to help, if that's what you want," Leia promised. "Is it?"

This was all just too much for Tess. She didn't understand it. A part of her was begging for answers, another part of her was left in the dark. She found herself rising to a stand.

"I'm going to go on a walk."

* * *

Tess went on a walk to be with nothing but her thoughts, but surprisingly enough, no thoughts came. Her mind was just blank as she shuffled through the white halls of Cloud City.

Suddenly, Tess snapped into alertness when her ears caught one of the voices she most feared. She only heard it once, but somehow she knew the heavy mechanical breathing and the deep, demanding voice was Darth Vader's. She immediately put her ear to the door.

"In exchange for finding Skywalker's friends," said Vader. "I have given Boba Fett permission to take Solo and retrieve his bounty with Jabba the Hutt on Tatooine. He needs the smuggler alive. Any torturing to lure Skywalker will have to be minimal."

"What about the princess?" asked an unfamiliar voice.

Tess' could feel her heart pounding in her throat. If some other part of her didn't take over after realizing how important this conversation was to her and her friends, she probably would have gotten sick right there.

"I have interrogated the princess before," responded Vader. Chills crawled all over Tess' arms. "She is extremely resistant, and has somehow learned to shield her thoughts from reading and manipulation through the Force. I sense nothing of her even when sharing the same room. I fear young Skywalker may not sense anything from her either if she is in pain. Now, the child with them—the one that escaped the Death Star—she might be the perfect target. I have an officer in my establishment that suggests this girl was some sort of creation, rather than a child born. In the process of testing her, he has agreed to begin with the pain-related processes to most effectively bring Skywalker here."

Tess' breath nearly stopped. She knew the moment Vader said it that the officer interested in her was Chid—her former guardian. Tess' brain told her to run and tell the others before it was too late, but her feet would not let her move.

"What if this officer is right," began yet another unfamiliar voice, "and the child is a creation, but it turns out she is some kind of inhuman? What if this means that Luke Skywalker will not sense her?"

A robotic voice jumped in.

"Though I need Solo alive, as long as I can supervise, I will allow him to be tortured less extensively to ensure you get what you came for, Lord Vader."

"Your help is appreciated, Boba Fett," Vader replied.

"Tess, what are you doing?" asked a familiar voice.

Tess' glance darted up, startled, to see Lando Calrissian standing over her.

"Nothing, I…" Then, Tess froze. "You…you called me Tess. I told you my name was Inna."

Calrissian's face tensed up. Suddenly, he grabbed Tess around the waist and clapped another hand over her mouth. Tess kicked and screamed as best she could. She tried to bite his hand, kick his shin—something.

Tess' heart practically stopped when Lando Calrissian opened the door she had been listening through and Tess found herself face-to-face with Darth Vader.


	16. Chapter 15 - Bespin (3 ABY)

Leia Organa paced about the white room, her tan vest flowing behind her. Her sense that something was off about Cloud City was skyrocketing. Han entered the room for the first time since that morning.

"Where have you been?" Leia demanded. "Something is seriously wrong here. Tess has been missing for almost three standard hours, we haven't seen Threepio since we arrived, and no one has seen or heard anything about either of them."

Considerably calmer than the princess, Han took her gently by the shoulders and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

"Calm down a minute," he said softly. "Did Tess just leave out of the blue, or did she go out for a snack…?"

"We, um…" Leia began awkwardly, keeping in mind that she hadn't gotten the chance to tell Han about her familiar ties to Tess. Now wasn't the best time to bring that up. "We did have a bit of an emotional conversation."

"See?" Han assured her, as if that was the solution. "She's a teenager. She needed some time. I'm sure she'll be back soon."

Just then, Chewie walked in with a whine. He held a plasteel bin full of C-3PO's disassembled form.

"You found him in a junk pot?" Han asked Chewie, taking a look at the golden remains.

"Oh, what a mess…" Leia sighed. "Chewie, do you think you can repair him?"

Chewie growled an affirmative response.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything," said Lando Calrissian from the doorway. Leia gave Han a look, hoping he took the hint not to ask Lando for any favors with the droid or otherwise.

"Not really," Leia told him unconvincingly. He walked up to the princess.

"You look absolutely beautiful," he told her. "You truly belong with us here among the clouds."

"Thank you," said Leia flatly. "Have you seen my sister Inna, by any chance?" Han looked confused for a moment. He was so bad at sticking to the code names when they had them. He forgot everyone's so easily.

"Yes," Lando informed her. "I saw Inna on the way over here and invited her to dinner, as I was planning to do with all of you as well. She's waiting in the dining hall, if you would care to join us."

Seeing Lando offer Leia his arm, Han came to the other side of her so the princess could take his arm instead. Lando managed to take a hint and lead the way rather than escort the princess.

* * *

Han, Leia, Chewbacca, and Lando made casual conversation as they neared the dining hall. Somehow, the subject of the rebellion and the Empire came up and Han asked why Lando was so sure that they were protected. Leia noticed Lando tense up a bit before his response.

"I just made a deal that will keep the Empire out of here forever," he said shortly. At that, he opened the door to the dining hall. Darth Vader stood at the head of the dinner table with his black gloved hand around Tess' neck. Boba Fett stood menacingly in the corner and several stormtroopers surrounded them.

Adrenaline rushed through Leia's veins and she snatched Han's blaster. After three perfectly-aimed but Force-blocked shots right at Vader's head, the Sith used the Force to bring the blaster to him. Leia's heart stopped when he put Han's gun to Tess' head.

"We would be honored if you would join us," Vader said smoothly.

Han and Leia looked at each other, then Leia glared at Lando with nothing but hatred.

"I had no choice," he explained, mostly looking at his old friend Han. "They arrived right before you did. I'm sorry." The door closed behind him. They were trapped in this room with some of the most dangerous people in the galaxy.

Leia lunged forward towards Lando and could have easily choked him to death if Han did not hold her back. He wrapped both arms around her not just to restrain her, but to comfort her. Angry tears formed in Leia's eyes.

"Shh…now's not the time," Han whispered. "We'll get out of this."

Leia's heart broke as she glanced back at Tess, whose hands were tied in front of her. The fourteen-year-old mouthed 'sorry', tears streaming down her cheeks. Leia nearly broke down into tears, shaking her head, hopefully communicating that it was not her fault. Then, the princess turned to Lando with a cold glare.

"If anything happens to her," she muttered through clenched teeth. "Have no doubt in your mind that your life will end within a day."

"Such passion, Princess, for nothing but a rebel teenager," Vader mused. He removed the handcuffs restraining Tess, then pushed her over to a familiar-looking imperial officer. Tess looked absolutely terrified. "Now," continued the Dark Lord. "Please take your seats. We have business to discuss."


	17. Chapter 16 - Bespin (3 ABY)

Tess could hardly breathe with Darth Vader's cold, gloved fingers grasping her forehead. The durasteel bounds around her wrists and ankles sent chills up her limbs.

"Astonishing," Darth Vader mused. "As if someone has replicated her signature and placed it inside."

"I find it sickening," Chid disagreed. "The creation of unnatural life just to trick you, Lord Vader. If I may say so, my Lord, remember that this child is not her child but an inhuman use of her against her will. An abuse of the deceased. An abomination."

"Of course," Lord Vader agreed. "But still, scientifically astounding." Vader finally removed his hand from Tess' forehead. "When we depart, she will be taken to the Emperor himself by his own request. I have provided you with the IT-O Interrogator if you wish to make use of it, but as long as we bring Skywalker here and the child can stand in front of the Emperor, your job will be heavily rewarded, Admiral Deltrod."

"Yes, my Lord," Chid said with a bow.

As soon as Vader left the room, Chid stood over her with a malevolent grin. Tess felt frozen solid. Leia had told her she was a victim of the IT-O Interrogator on the Death Star. She wouldn't talk about it much, but Tess could tell it was a traumatizing experience, even for someone as strong as Leia.

Chid grabbed Tess under the chin, forcing her to look at him.

"Let's see how much pain the science experiment can take."

* * *

Leia practically threw herself into the door of her holding cell. Her shoulders heaved with anger and hatred for the people who thought it was okay to torture her friends and leave her here to listen to their screams as her own form of torture. The princess propelled herself into the door again.

By now, Leia's shoulder was severely bruised, but she didn't even feel it. Deep down she knew there was no way she could get through that door, but she needed to do something—anything.

A kind Wookie growl and a friendly paw on her shoulder turned her around. Still fuming, Leia looked up at Chewbacca. He was sedated, so after having a reaction similar to Leia's he was so worn out that he could only manage fiddling with a broken Threepio.

"Who in their right mind tortures a fourteen-year-old child?" Leia said softly. Chewie growled a sympathetic response just as Han was shoved into the room.

Han's eyes were wide and bloodshot and his skin seemed several shades paler. He was so weak that Chewbacca and Leia had to keep him from falling over.

"I feel terrible…" he muttered. His eyes didn't seem to connect with anything properly—they swung all over the place as if he was trying to figure out which direction to look. Chewbacca and Leia helped him over to the hard durasteel bed.

Once Han was on the bed, Chewbacca returned to the pieces of Threepio and Leia stroked Han's hair. She winced at the sound of another one of Tess' screams.

"They never even asked me any questions," Han breathed. He reached a hand towards Leia's. He looked into her eyes for a moment. "I'll die before they take Tess with them. I promise." Holding back tears, Leia leaned forward to give Han a kiss on the head.

Just then, the door to their cell opened. Leia's temper fumed when she saw Lando enter the room.

"Lando," she sneered. The princess helped Han sit up. Chewie growled menacingly.

"Get out of here, Lando," Han spat. "You sick bastard. What are you getting at, torturing a kid?"

"Just shut up and listen," Lando snapped. "Vader has agreed to turn Leia and Chewie over to me." Leia's heart sunk.

"With you?" Han questioned.

"What about Tess and Han?" Leia asked, afraid of the answer.

"Vader is giving Han to the bounty hunter," Lando explained. "He wouldn't tell me what he wanted with the kid."

"Vader wants us all dead," Leia pointed out, frustrated and confused as to why all of this was happening.

"He doesn't want you at all," said Lando, his anger rising. "He wants the kid and he's after somebody called...uh…Skywalker. Lord Vader set a trap for him."

Suddenly it all made sense. This was all to lure Luke to Vader.

"And we're the bait," Leia put together. "But I still don't get why Vader would want Tess—she's fourteen years old!"

"I don't know," Lando admitted. "To be honest, the way he talked about her, I was expecting some sort of clone, maybe even a human-like droid. They kept calling her a creation. Like a science experiment."

With a burst of effort and a bit of help from Leia, Han pushed himself to a stand.

"Well, she's not," Han spat. "She's a human kid who you're responsible for torturing. You fixed this up so good, didn't you? My friend…"

At that, Han threw a punch right at Lando's jaw. The officers who came in with Lando started hitting Han with blunt sticks and Leia took the chance to grab one of their blasters and point it right at Lando's head. Unfortunately, she was grabbed from behind and one of the officers forcefully bent her arm behind her, taking the gun and shoving it hard into her back.

"Stop!" Lando ordered, composing himself and fixing his blue cape. "I've done all I can. Sorry I couldn't do more, but I've got my own problems."

"Yeah," Han muttered, letting Chewbacca help him up. "You're a real hero." The officer holding Leia still had not let go.

"I meant what I said earlier," Leia called after Lando. "I said that if you hurt her, I'd kill you. I will!" Leia fought hard against the officer's grasp—so hard that, despite Han, Chewie, and even Lando's protests, he was forced to knock her unconscious with the back of the gun.


	18. Chapter 17 - Bespin (3 ABY)

Tess could not even scream anymore. Her body seemed to melt into itself, burning in the process, hitting every possible nerve as her bones transformed into lava peeling through her skin. She looked down at her arms. The lava was beginning to burn through—or so it appeared. In her mind, Tess knew that the drugs injected into her were making her hallucinate while feeling this pain, but in the moment that did not matter. All she really knew was that it was the worst pain she had ever felt.

Tess' mouth hung wide open, gasping for air as the burning rose to her throat. She assumed this was the grand finale because the droid had been dismissed. Chid still looked down on her with that slight grin. He was saying something, but Tess could not make it out. The lava entered her ears. Then, after she thought she couldn't scream anymore, the burning hit her brain and Tess cried out in horror.

Finally, as Tess exhaled, the burning seemed to gush out it. Overwhelmed with relief, Tess allowed herself several deep breaths, hoping they would have the same affect.

Tess' body was soaked with sweat. Her wrists and ankles were bruised and bleeding—she even suspected one wrist was broken from the seizure-like jolts she experienced as part of her senseless torture.

"Very interesting," Chid chuckled, as if the effects of the torture were funny. "Most normal human beings would have passed out four or five times throughout that treatment, even with the injection to keep you conscious. But you managed to stay awake the whole time." He pressed something that released Tess' wrists and ankles from the durasteel bounds and ordered her to get up.

"We have an event to go to."

* * *

Tess could feel everything and nothing. She felt Chid's coarse hands on her shoulders. She felt the cold durasteel bounds on her wrists. She felt the hard ground beneath her feet. Yet Tess' mind was silent.

After what seemed like a mile-long walk through the white halls, Chid and Tess finally arrived at their destination—a black door. A harsh red glow emerged when it opened. Tess felt Chid's breath on her ear.

"Unless you want this reunion cut short," he murmured darkly, "I would not mention a word about our adventure with the little black droid. We don't want to interrupt your friend's encasement in carbonate, do we?"

Normally, the notion of one of Tess' friends getting hurt would stop her heart, but either the shock of the torture or the drugs used during it had left her emotionally numb. As if her body was trying to fight back against that numbness, a single tear dripped down Tess' cheek.

The room was dark—a drastic contrast to the white halls of the rest of the building. The center of the room held a hole in the floor, and the rest was structured like an arena around that hole.

Across the room, Tess' eyes found Han, Leia, and Chewie. Seeing her friends slapped the girl back into reality. During the torture she experienced, a part of her was sure of eminent death. She wasn't sure if she would ever see her friends again.

Suddenly, a shove on Tess' shoulder nearly knocked her over. She turned around and looked at Chid in response.

"You may go say goodbye," he permitted, giving her a less forceful nudge in her friends' direction.

Chewbacca was the first to catch Tess' eye. He let out a friendly Wookie growl, alerting Han and Leia's attention to her. Approaching her friends, Tess began in a sort of stumble, which turned into a full run until she found herself in their arms. Since all four-and-a-half (the half being the severed Threepio on Chewie's back) were not physically restrained at the moment, the stormtroopers watched them carefully.

"I'm so sorry…" Tess muttered through sobs. "I'm sorry… I heard them talking… I-I could have stopped this all from happening… we could have gotten away and none of this would have happened…"

"Hey, listen," Han said with a gentle sternness. "Don't you ever think that, okay? I've got a bounty on my head. I'm the one who dragged you all into this." Leia clearly wanted to protest with saying it was not his fault either, but Tess could see that she held herself back at the risk of implying that a part of the situation still was Tess' fault.

Chewbacca managed to separate Tess from the group embrace and get his own hug, lifting her off her feet as he did so. She smiled up at her Wookie friend and squeezed his furry paw.

Finally, Tess turned to Leia. As soon as their eyes met, it was as if she knew what had happened. Leia knew the look of someone who had been through what she had been through on the Death Star three years ago. Tess knew from the moment she saw her friends that Leia would somehow be able to tell, but it still broke her heart that the princess had to relive her experience, especially now that Tess knew what that felt like.

Leia wrapped her arms around Tess and held her close, resting her chin on the girl's head.

"It's okay," the princess kept whispering. "You're with us now. You're safe now, Tess. Everything's going to be fine."

But everything was not going to be fine. They surely had not come to the carbon-freezing chamber for a family reunion. As a stormtrooper approached Han and placed handcuffs on him, it became clear to Tess who the victim of carbon freezing would be.

As if just now realizing what was going to happen, Chewbacca threw his arms up in protest with a deep, angry growl. He knocked over two stormtroopers before Han could pacify him.

"Chewie! Chewie, this won't help me!" Han insisted. He paused a moment to let the Wookie settle down and allow the stormtroopers to handcuff him. "The princess…the kid… You have to take care of them." Chewbacca sadly looked at Leia, Tess, then back at Han. "You hear me?" The Wookie managed a nod.

Next, Han's eyes came to Tess. Though his hands were restrained, Tess threw her arms around him anyway.

"You're like family to me, you know that?" he muttered into her hair. He then pulled away and let his eyes meet hers again. "Don't ever forget it." Tess nodded, tears falling down her cheeks. She hugged Chewie's arm as Han moved to Leia.

The two just stared at each other for a moment, then emotions swelled and they simultaneously leaned into a passionate kiss. Tess could see tears in Leia's eyes. The kiss only ended when a stormtrooper pulled Han away, leading him backwards into the hole in the floor where he was to be frozen in carbonate.

Suddenly, Leia stepped forward.

"I love you!" she blurted. Han responded as if he had known for years that she would say those three little words in that exact moment.

"I know."

And in that moment, Han Solo looked like the bravest man in the world. The pain in his face was not caused by the fear of his own fate, but the fear of his friends'. He descended into the glowing red hole in the floor with bravery and dignity, and only when the smoke rose did he show his true pain, which would be frozen in carbonate for as long as he remained encased.

A magnet pulled the statue of their tragic hero from the depths. After he was fully emerged, the carbonate crashed to the ground, making Tess and Leia jump. Tess glanced over at the broken-hearted princess. She wished more than anything that she could ease her friend's pain.

Tess watched as Han's encasement was inspected. Lando Calrissian revealed to Darth Vader that Solo was indeed alive, and in perfect hibernation. After that, he approached the prisoners.

Leia jerked away from Lando's hand on her arm.

"Calrissian," boomed the Dark Lord. "Take the princess and the Wookie to my ship."

"You said they would be left in the city under my supervision!" Lando protested. "I thought you only wanted the kid!"

"I am altering the deal," Vader returned. "Pray I do not alter it again." The dark mask then turned to Admiral Chid Deltrod. "Admiral, you will continue the procedure and report back to me when finished, at which time we will present these…findings to the Emperor."

Tess and her friends did not entirely process what Vader had instructed Admiral Deltrod to do until he was dragging her away.

"No…no, please!" Tess cried, fighting against him. Leia lunged forward to free Tess from the Admiral, but she only managed to grab Tess' hand before the princess was pulled back by a stormtrooper.

"Let her go!" Leia screamed. "She's been through enough of your sick torture! She's fourteen! Please—take me instead! Anything!" She held onto Tess' hand for dear life. It took three stormtroopers to finally separate them, allowing Chid to drag Tess off. Feeling Leia's hand slip from her fingers, Tess' hope went with it.

"No!" Tess shouted, flailing in the admiral's arms, making it as difficult as possible for him to get her out of that room. Still, he managed to do it.

"Your offer is tempting, Princess," Vader mused. "After all, we enjoyed ourselves significantly during your last visit. But you aren't capable of supplying what this…this thing is." At that, Darth Vader spun around, his cape falling behind him, and stalked out of the room.

"She's a person, Vader!" Leia shrieked. "No matter what you tell yourself to validate this cruelty! SHE IS REAL!"

Tess held onto those last three words, hoping that the harder she grasped, the higher the likelihood that they will eventually be proven true. _She is real._

_I am real._

Still, as Tess was pulled into the room she was tortured in less than an hour ago, no doubt to be treated like a science experiment gone wrong yet again, those words became harder and harder to believe.


	19. Chapter 18 - Bespin (3 ABY)

Luke Skywalker kept his blaster close as he surveyed the area around the corner. Artoo followed close behind, rolling along almost playfully. Cloud City was a big place and every hall looked the same. Luke reached out through the Force to guide him to his friends, but each trail led him in different directions. The emotions coming from them were so intense that he could not depict whose pain he was sensing.

Suddenly, a rush of agony fell over him—someone else's pain. And fear. It was overwhelming. If the pull had any sort of source, it would be the door that was directly in front of Luke.

The aspiring Jedi raised his blaster before attempting to open the door. Locked. Luke could feel there were people in there, but he could not hear them. Carefully, he scanned the perimeter.

"Artoo," he asked the droid. "Can you spike the security system?"

Artoo beeped an affirmative answer and within minutes, the door opened. The emotions Luke felt behind that door spiked once the room was actually in view.

The smell of blood caught in Luke's throat. He coughed and covered his nose and mouth with his sleeve. The room was nothing but a metal bed with durasteel wrist and ankle bounds attached to it. Other than that, an IT-O Interrogator droid had plugged itself into the left wall.

On the right side of the bed, a man dressed in the uniform of an imperial officer lay face-down on the floor. Luke felt something dark deep in his gut. Slowly, he took the man by the shoulder and turned him onto his back. Luke gasped and stumbled backwards. The man's jaw had been torn completely off, leaving a pool of blood still gushing around his unsupported tongue. The loss of blood had obviously killed the man. The severed jaw was about three paces away.

Remembering the interrogation droid behind him, Luke figured this was done as some sort of torture. He shook his head at the cruelty—especially considering those droids normally belonged to the Empire.

"I didn't mean to," came a small voice. Luke swiveled in the direction of the sound, instinctively readying his blaster. Then, the warmth of a familiar Force signature overcame him. He neared the dark corner and proved his Force sense had identified the other presence correctly.

"Tess?" he called softly. The fourteen-year-old was huddled in the corner as if trying to push herself as far away from the room as possible. She hugged her knees with shaking hands and shook her head repeatedly.

"I didn't mean to," she repeated, her eyes tearing up. "I didn't mean to." Tess met Luke's eyes for a moment, and then she returned to her blank stare.

The soon-to-be Jedi took another scan around the room and began to piece events together. That, plus his visions on the Dagobah System told the story—or at least part of it.

A Jedi was not to turn on a path of anger, but looking at the IT-O Interrogator droid and knowing they had used it on fourteen-year-old Tess got him pretty damn close. Luke did not know what the Empire wanted with the girl, if anything. He had already sensed this was a trap for him, and if they had tortured Tess for that purpose, Luke would never forgive himself.

Knowing that he still had friends to help, Luke gently moved to take Tess' hand. At first, she shivered and pulled away. Then, when he tried again, she did not fight it.

"Tess…it's me," Luke assured her. Still minding her state of shock, he slipped one hand under her legs and the other behind her back, lifting her off the ground with ease.

* * *

Leia, Chewbacca, and the disheveled Threepio on the Wookie's back were escorted towards the landing platform that held Vader's ship. Leia observed her surroundings. With Lando, an imperial officer, and several stormtroopers surrounding them, even with Chewie's help it would be impossible to attempt an escape.

Leia's mind raced. She had seen Luke, now it was just a matter of waiting. Luke was smart—he probably knew it was a trap before she yelled it down the hallway like a madwoman while simultaneously getting dragged away by an officer.

Still, Luke had been implying for months now that facing Darth Vader was an eminent task for him. Leia had no idea whether his intentions were to try and save them directly or to do that by defeating Vader. Either way, though Leia's faith in Luke was strong, there was little chance of success. The Empire had been extra tricky this time and had come prepared with enough reinforcements to wrangle thirty prisoners.

Suddenly, numerous officers in blue seemed to appear out of nowhere, wielding blasters. Leia's instincts sent her hand down to her belt for her own blaster, but of course she was a hostage and therefore had been disarmed. Only when Lando started pulling away the stormtroopers' weapons did Leia process that these officers in blue were not enemies—or at least they shared a mutual enemy with her.

Leia exchanged glances with Chewie, then watched Lando Calrissian order his officers to take the stormtroopers away. Her hatred for the man overpowered her relief of disarmed captors. The traitor threw gasoline on her anger fire by pushing two blasters into her hands as if they were suddenly on the same team.

"What do you think you're doing?" she demanded, talking over to him as he began to uncuff the Wookie.

"We're getting out of here," Lando said simply. Leia fumed. Torturing your friends was not something that disarming a stormtrooper would fix. And assuming that Chewbacca would not feel the same way was even more idiotic of him.

"Do you seriously think that after what you did to Han, the Wookie—"

Leia was interrupted by an angry Chewbacca growl, as the seven-foot Wookie grabbed Lando's neck. The princess was actually relieved—she would have done the same thing with the provided physical strength. She ignored Threepio's cries to trust Lando for their freedom's sake. Leia was completely on Chewie's side in this.

Through broken breaths, Lando muttered something about trying to help and having no choice.

"We understand, don't we Chewie?" Leia taunted. "He had no choice!"

Leia was about ready to let the Wookie kill Lando before she heard Han's name.

"What?" Leia asked. Chewie must have heard it, too, because his grip loosened just the slightest bit.

"We still have a chance to save Han," Lando gasped. "At the East Platform." Leia hesitated to believe him.

"And Tess?"

"I'll take you to the room she's being held in," Lando promised. "But they were planning on her being there for a few more days—our only chance to save Han is now."

The princess looked up at Chewie. Within seconds they were racing off in that direction.

Fortunately, the East Platform was close. Blasters in hand and Lando trailing close behind as if he was invited, Leia padded the exit to the platform just in time to see the ship fly away.

The man she loved went with it.


	20. Chapter 19 - Bespin (3 ABY)

_Happy 20,000 words everyone! There's a new story poster to celebrate! I know it can't get that big but this one's got pretty much everybody on it - including Tess, played by the real-life Tess in a galaxy not so far away (which would be me!). This story has been so fun to write and just wait for what I have in store for you! You think everything about Tess was revealed in the prologue? THINK AGAIN!_

_Also as a secondary note, I apologize for any errors in the last couple of chapters. I normally read the chapters aloud to my buds across the hall because reading out loud is the easiest way for me to catch mistakes, but its kind of 3 in the morning so of course they are asleep. If you're reading this on the day it was posted, stay online because I'll probably finish up with Empire Strikes Back events tonight and maybe I'll start on Return of the Jedi section. As of now (though the RotJ section will be almost as long as ESB and considerably more revealing and eventful), I should be ending this story after RotJ. Might do a few one-shots of fun little moments of the group exploring some other planet or something, if I get some ideas. _

_Comments are encouraged and super appreciated!_

* * *

Leia, Chewie, and Lando approached the door to one of the torture rooms with the upmost caution. Though they did not hear anything from where they were standing, there was still a good chance that the admiral was in the room with Tess.

Artoo, who Leia assumed had arrived with Luke and caught up to them around the East Platform, informed the others that the door was unlocked.

"What?" Lando said in disbelief. Expecting the droid to be wrong, Lando tried to pad the door open. He was surprised when it worked, but even more surprised at and unprepared for what he saw inside.

Leia and Chewbacca caught up with him from behind, sharing a glimpse of the unoccupied torture room. Both of their heads slowly turned to Lando.

"She was supposed to be held here!" Lando protested in his own defense. "They couldn't have taken her anywhere else!"

Leia pushed past Lando to further inspect the room. Her heart skipped a beat at the sight of a shiny black droid plugged into the wall.

_"And now, your highness, we will discuss the location of your hidden rebel base…"_

The princess shook away that memory. She could not allow that to distract her now—Tess was in trouble.

Leia approached the durasteel restraint bed. Intuition told her that Tess was indeed here at one point.

Chewie, who had begun inspecting the room as well, called Leia over with a growl. There, in front of the Wookie, was a dark pool of blood. It was nearly dried and almost invisible above the floor's dark gray color. Once again, all eyes turned to Lando.

"Where else could they have taken her?" Leia demanded, her words slow and dark. Lando ran his hands through his hair.

"I don't know…I don't know," he muttered. "They must have taken her away on one of their ships somehow—I just checked with Lobot, my Chief Administrator, and all other holding cells are taken up by the stormtroopers we apprehended."

Chewie erupted into an angry growl, throwing Lando against the wall.

"You're mad at the wrong person!" Lando shouted, picking himself up.

"Really?" Leia spat, crossing her arms over her chest. "Because last time I checked, you were the traitor here."

The Baron Administrator stomped over to Leia, clearly fed up with being treated like an enemy.

"A traitor who has been helping you as of five minutes ago," he reminded her. "And a traitor who knows that we're all going to be blasted to pieces by imperial troops unless we get out of here fast."

"What about Tess?!" Leia demanded.

"There's nothing we can do for her here," Calrissian insisted.

Leia felt absolutely helpless. As if having to put her trust in a traitor wasn't enough, both attempts to save their friends had failed. Though Luke was quite capable of taking care of himself, Leia had not seen him and was growing worried. Still, if Lando was right about the troops, they needed to get to the Falcon—and fast.

* * *

Though Leia would rather die than give him the satisfaction of hearing it from her, Lando was right about the imperial troops. Fortunately, they were no match for Artoo. He managed a cloud of smoke to blur their target vision, allowing Lando, Leia, Chewie, and the helpful little droid to make it to the Millennium Falcon.

Lando and Leia let the others board, but they stayed outside the ship with their blasters to get rid of any remaining troops that might prevent them from taking off.

Leia's aim was even better than her usual nine-out-of-ten blaster accuracy when fueled by the thought that one of those stormtroopers laid a hand on Tess. She had no clue of what they did to Tess or why besides the IT-O, and she feared that was not the only torture that the girl had to suffer through. Leia could still hear the screams in her head—Tess' and Han's—the piercing screams of pain that she could not stop.

Lando's voice snapped Leia out of her vengeful haze.

"Leia!" he called out from across the ramp. "Go!"

Leia shook her head and returned to blasting the troops away—and not just because she would rather kiss a Hutt than take orders from Calrissian. They were going to pay. Those corrupted white robots of the Empire's demands would be destroyed for thinking they had the right to harm a fourteen-year-old girl and encase a man in carbonate.

"Leia!" Lando called again, now making his own way up the ramp. "Come on, we need to get out of here! There are more behind them—you're going to get shot if you stay!"

"Then let me!" the princess snapped. Leia did not even turn to look at him that time. As each white suit fell, she just wanted to make another one do the same.

Until a familiar voice called her name.

Leia spun around. At first, she thought she was hallucinating. Her mind had decided that Tess was either killed during torture or dragged away by the Empire, so seeing Tess at the top of the Millennium Falcon's ramp seemed nothing more than wishful.

The ramp started to close, and Leia quickly jumped onto it, letting it raise her up into the ship until she was looking at Tess from level ground. They just stared at each other, neither knowing what to do. Chewbacca and Lando had turned into the cockpit to bring the ship to life and get them off Cloud City.

The floor rumbled beneath them as the Millennium Falcon rose into the air. Leia and Tess remained standing over the boarding ramp. Leia noticed her stumble a bit, as she was always a bit clumsy with her flying legs.

"Shouldn't you be in a seat with acceleration straps?" Leia asked habitually. She only realized that she had broken the silence after the fact.

Her eyes glistening with approaching tears, Tess let out a short laugh at Leia's untimely use of the questions she had heard hundreds of times. This was the first time that question had not annoyed her. Tess ran forward into Leia's arms, her shoulders heaving with sobs before she even got there.

The two fell to their knees, still holding the embrace, each allowing the other to cry and offering the comfort of what could only be described as the love of their unconventional family.


	21. Chapter 20 - Millennium Falcon (3 ABY)

_So I was just looking at one of my favorite FanFictions, and I realized that I have more reviews and Followers than what is literally the best Luke/Leia/Han story on FanFiction. Rather than being excited, I was like "That is not fair! That one is so much better than mine!" So check out "Renewal" by Ivylore! Let the author know who sent you! She's super talented - its literally the quality of a legit Star Wars novel._

* * *

**_- - - - - Millennium Falcon - - - - -_**

Tess let the blue milk swirl around her cup. She watched it coat the sides, then slip down until there were only a few droplets left there. Part of her wanted to set the cup down, curl into a ball, and sleep for days. Another frightening part of her wanted to throw it across the room and scream as loud as her lungs would permit her.

_"It was the Force, Tess," Luke explained. After carrying her inside the ship, he gently sat her down at one of the booths inside the Millennium Falcon and put a blanket over her lap._

_"What?" Tess had to have heard him incorrectly. "But I can't use the Force. Jedi use the Force. I'm not a Jedi!"_

_"Not yet," Luke corrected. Tess' jaw dropped._

_"Not yet?!" she exclaimed. "What do you mean?! I'm just…I'm not…"_

_Luke knelt in front of Tess and placed a friendly hand on each of her knees. He waited until he was sure that she looked directly at him. _

_"Tess, I need you to listen to what I have to say right now, okay? It's extremely important," Luke began carefully. Tess managed a slow nod, and only then did her friend continue. "The Force is an energy that flows through all life in this galaxy and beyond. It had two sides—the light side and the dark side. The light side is based on wisdom, logic, and healing; but the dark side is driven by anger, selfishness, destruction, and sometimes fear." _

_Luke took a moment to make sure Tess understood. He took her hands in his own._

_"What you experienced in that room—it was not your fault," he explained slowly. "You have not harnessed your power yet, but you will. You—"_

_Tess jumped to a stand._

_"Wait—no!" she blurted. "I don't…I'm not like you!"_

_"You are," Luke insisted, standing up as well and taking her by the shoulders. "And don't worry—I can teach you how to take control of this power you have."_

_A sudden realization stabbed Tess in the heart._

_"He told me I was a creation. And that was not the first time I've heard people say that about me. He told me I wasn't real—I was an experiment that nobody cared about once it came out wrong. And…I just wanted him to stop talking," she reflected quietly. "I was more afraid and angry in that moment that I was in my entire life. And then...his jaw...it just..." Her voice trailed off. Tess was terrified to ask the question on her mind. "Fear…anger…did I use the dark side?"_

_"Tess—"_

_"I did!" Tess snapped. "Don't deny it! I…no…oh, no…I…"_

_"It's not your fault," Luke insisted. Tess blurted out a laugh._

_"Not my fault?!" she said with exasperation. "How is ripping a man's jaw off with my magical powers not my fault?!"_

_"Tess, I will teach you how to control your emotions," Luke promised, taking her face in his hands so he could force her to look at him. "I will teach you how to use the light side of the Force. I promise. But right now I have to go."_

_"But—"_

_"Stay here," Luke cut her off, sitting her back down in the chair behind her. "Wait here in the Falcon. Han, Leia, and Chewie will escape soon and you can all get away from here."_

_Luke gave Tess a kiss on the forehead and spun around to disembark the Millennium Falcon._

_"What about you?" Tess called after him worriedly._

_With a poise of a sort of wisdom beyond his years, Luke turned to face the girl._

_"The Jedi's constant duty is to battle the dark side," he elucidated. "Be it among the outside forces or within the Jedi himself."_

Anger. Fear. Hate. The Dark Side.

Peace. Wisdom. Kindness. The Light Side.

Tess knew that her current emotions were anything but the emotions of the light side of the Force, but she tried to ignore it. If she really was Force-sensitive, that battle Luke was talking about was definitely not a tale to scare little Jedi to the light. If it was real—if Force-sensitivity was the explanation she decided to believe in—then that looming dark side presence was inside of her.

Tess was sitting up in what had become known as her bunk on the ship—a single bunk behind the lounge seats and the hologram board. There were also two triple bunkrooms on the Millennium Falcon, but they were closer to the cockpit and things could often get loud in there.

Lando Calrissian, Leia, and Chewbacca were in the cockpit as far as Tess knew. Artoo was across from Tess' single bunk at the technical station, plugged into a wall to do whatever droids do. Threepio—who was only a torso and head at this point—was powered off and secured into one of the lounge seats to prevent further damage if they were to meet any turbulence.

Normally, Tess would have made her way into the cockpit by now, but she could not imagine bearing the subtle stares from the others. Every time she caught their eyes on her, she felt an immense burden of guilt.

Even though her travel companions would never say it to her face, Tess feared they blamed her for what happened to Han. If she had only turned around as soon as she heard the danger they were in. If only she had reached them in time. Tess may have been able to initiate a timely escape if she had not been so stupid.

A familiar Wookie growl snapped Tess out of her thoughts. She looked up to see Chewbacca. He held up two stacks of Pazaak cards in his huge, furry hands.

"Haven't I taken enough of your credits?" Tess smirked lightly. She appreciated Chewie's attempt to cheer her up, but she was not in the mood for it. Even though he acted friendly, Tess still feared that he at least partially blamed her for their circumstances.

As if Tess was the popular one on the Falcon today, Leia was the next to come see her. The princess gently dismissed Chewbacca, and then joined Tess at the end of her bunk.

"I can't remember the last time I was in one of these things," Leia admitted, referring to the bunk. She glanced about the semi-alien surroundings. "I normally just grab a blanket and doze off in one of the cockpit seats. It's the only place on the ship where you can't hear Han's snoring."

Despite the uncomfortable mentioning of the man Leia loved, the princess surprised Tess with a soft smile. The fourteen-year-old was not quite as strong. She lowered her eyes and picked at the bandages around her more injured wrist. Leia must have noticed her aversion.

"You miss him?" the princess asked softly. Rather than bear another unsuccessful reassurance that their most recent marathon of horrible luck was not her fault, Tess simply nodded and played along. After all, she did miss Han—it just was not the main thing that was bothering her.

"I don't know how you can handle it so well," Tess admitted, avoiding Leia's eyes. "I mean, you two were close. More than close. You loved—"

"Luke."

Tess' eyebrows shot up as she met Leia's sudden trance-like stare.

"You're in love with Luke?!"

Leia's face did not change. It froze to a blank, yet somehow a knowing expression—like something had just become unbelievably clear. Tess did not know how to react. She interpreted the sudden clarity on her friend's face as a sudden realization of love for Luke.

"You are!" Tess gasped. "You're in love with Luke!"

Tess' assumption snapped Leia out of her trance that time.

"What?" she asked, making a face at Tess as if the conclusion she reached was absurd. "No," Leia corrected quickly, rising to a stand. "Han."

At that, the princess raced in the direction of the cockpit with Tess following close behind.

"_Han_ is in love with Luke?!"

Leia practically plowed into the back of the pilot seat that Lando occupied, nearly prompting him to reach for his blaster in surprise. Tess had matched Leia's speed to catch up and subsequently rammed into the princess. She suddenly understood how it was not completely ridiculous for someone to run into a parked speeder.

"We have to go back," Leia told Lando and the Wookie.

"Because Han is in love with Luke, right?" Tess asked. Lando and Chewie sported expressions of absolute confusion.

"No!" Leia shot back readily.

"Then I was right the first time!" Tess concluded. "You're in love with Luke!"

That time, Leia was the one getting stared at from their substitute pilot and the Wookie.

"I am not in love with Luke," she established definitively, holding up a finger to Tess in hope of stopping any further interruptions. "We have to go back," Leia repeated. "I know where Luke is."

She reached towards the controls as Chewbacca promptly obeyed her. A harder-to-convince Lando pushed Leia's hand's away.

"But what about those fighters?" he interrupted. Chewie looked up at the princess questioningly. The danger they faced made the Wookie second-guess their unexpected detour.

"Chewie, just do it!" Leia insisted. That was all the Wookie needed, and all he had to do was growl at Lando to get their substitute pilot on board with the plan as well.

Tess planted herself in the seat behind Chewie and fastened her acceleration straps. Leia did the same in the seat behind Lando.

"I'm in love with Han. No one's in love with Luke," the princess established quickly. Tess twisted her face into a playful wince.

"Wow, no one? Ouch, he's gonna need a medpac for that burn."


	22. Chapter 21 - Millennium Falcon (3 ABY)

It was a good thing the imperial fighters assumed that once the Falcon was gone it would not be coming back, because if they hadn't, returning to Cloud City would have been impossible.

Tess watched with bewilderment as Leia directed Lando and Chewie. How did she know where Luke was? Did she just suddenly remember that they were supposed to pick him up somewhere? The latter would be the logical explanation, but Tess sensed there was something deeper going on. Especially when they saw someone hanging from a weathervane at the very bottom of Cloud City.

"There's someone up there," Lando pointed out, as if reading Tess' thoughts. Leia stood up.

"Chewie, slow down," she demanded, her eyes wide. "Slow down and we'll get under him. Lando, open the top hatch." Lando did as advised. Tess stood up to go help him, but Leia grabbed her arm.

Luke left their area of vision as the Falcon pulled under him. Slowly but surely, they made a perfect stasis right under the weathervane.

Tess felt intuitively compelled to look to the left, and her heart raced at the sight of three TIE fighters like the ones who chased them out of the city.

"Leia…" Tess warned, pointing in that direction. Leia followed Tess' finger, then hurriedly grabbed the comlink.

"Lando?"

"Alright, let's go," came Calrissian's voice.

Chewie did not waste a second. He started preparing the ship to race away. Moments later, to everyone's relief, Lando helped an injured Luke over to the cockpit. Leia jumped to a stand and ran over to embrace him.

Tess kept her place, seeing that Luke needed medical attention more than another hug, but he gave her a smile over Leia's shoulder.

Leia helped him down the corridor. Wielding the fastest ship in the galaxy, the group was no match for the TIE fighters.

It was the Star Destroyer that caused a problem.

Leia soon returned and suggested that Tess go sit with Luke. She welcomed the opportunity to escape the eminent debate over whose fault it was that light speed was not working this time around.

Tess reached the doorway to the room Luke was in and heard a voice. She immediately recognized it as Luke's. At first, she suspected one of the droids was in there with him, but then she saw Threepio talking to Artoo at the other side of the room, warning the little droid not to trust strange computers or something of the like.

"Father?" Luke said. Tess figured he was hallucinating.

"Ben…" he continued. "Why didn't you tell me…"

Tess remembered Ben—that was Obi-Wan Kenobi, a Jedi Master. Her curiosity preventing her from staying put, she made her way into the room.

"Luke?" she whispered. He turned his head slightly. "What were you talking about?"

"Vader…" he muttered. Tess wasn't sure she heard correctly. As if he didn't know he said that aloud, Luke shook his head slightly. "Don't listen to me…I'm…I'm not making any sense."

Tess gave him a look. Wincing, Luke tried to sit up.

"No," Tess insisted, pushing him gently back onto the bed. "You're hurt. You need to stay put." She placed a wet cloth over his forehead and couldn't help but cringe at his severed hand. "Did…Vader do this to you?"

"Yes," Luke whispered, his gaze and most of his mind seemingly somewhere far away. "Father…"

"You said it again!" Tess exclaimed. Luke groggily shook his head.

"There's…there's still…good in him…" he muttered.

He couldn't possibly be talking about Vader. Not the man that they as rebels had come to despise.

"I wouldn't count on it," Tess muttered under her breath. "I hate him."

"No!" Luke snapped. After thinking he was practically unconscious at that point, his outburst made her jump. "No," he repeated. "Hate…hate leads to the dark side."

"Luke, you need to rest," Tess reminded him. The aspiring Jedi grabbed her hand in retaliation.

"Tess, listen," he said seriously. "I'm…I'm not a Jedi yet, but… I want to train you as best I can. I want to train you in the ways of the Force. Would you want that?"

Completely caught off-guard with the idea, Tess' jaw dropped. Force-sensitive one minute, Padawan the next? This was all so surreal.

"I…" Tess stammered. "You mean, like your Padawan?" She let her mind catch up to her, as Luke seemed to slip further and further away from consciousness. He said nothing, but she could almost feel him tell her how much this needed to happen.

"Ye—"

Suddenly, the ship jolted into light speed, sending Tess sprawling into the wall of the small room.

"Yes!" Tess exclaimed, as if now would be her last chance to say it. "Yes, I'll do it!"

She pushed herself to a stand and saw that Luke finally slipped into unconsciousness. She smiled slightly. He needed the rest.

"I'll leave you be, then," Tess whispered. "Master."


	23. Chapter 22 - Rebel Star Cruiser (3 ABY)

**_- - - - - Rebel Star Cruiser - - - - -_**

Tess Naberrie absent-mindedly paced around the giant Rebel cruiser. After three years of travelling on the Millennium Falcon, she was not used to the pristine look and the modern design of the ship. The fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy was attached to their cruiser by a docking tube, currently occupied by Lando and Chewbacca.

Not entertained with simple pacing, Tess crossed over to watch the medical droid fix Luke's hand. The Jedi's few grimaces stopped as soon as his new Padawan was near. He and Tess glanced over to Leia, who gazed solemnly out the large window.

"How would you feel about keeping this a secret for now?" Luke whispered to Tess. She gave him a look.

"Your hand?" she asked. "Because the whole needley medical droid fixing your stub of an arm thing kind of gave it away."

"No," Luke chuckled lightly. "Your training."

Seeing the actual seriousness of the situation, Tess' expression hardened a bit.

"Lie to Leia?"

"Leia is always worried about me because of what I can do," Luke reminded her. "And she worries about you already—can you imagine the stress of finding out that you are following this path, too? A path she is so confused about? You'll be protecting her, Tess." Luke looked over to the princess once again. "She has enough to worry about right now. At least until we find Han."

It took her a few moments, but Tess finally nodded. Luke smiled at her and pushed himself to a stand. He squeezed the girl's hand, then lead her over to Leia.

Tess took a few steps ahead of Luke and placed herself to Leia's right, taking the princess' hand. Luke came to Leia's left side. He smiled softly at her, and then hugged her shoulders.

The three of them stood there in front of the Rebel cruiser's huge window. They watched the Millennium Falcon detach itself from the docking tube and zoom off into oblivion.

So much was new—Tess would soon be trained in the Force, Lando was now on their side, and with him and Chewbacca on the Falcon, they had a new arrangement of their traditional crew. Yet despite all the new, the three friends felt as if they had known each other forever.

Luke, Leia, and Tess were the same people they had been for the past three years, yet somehow looking at the galaxy spilled out before them, they could not deny the sense of a brand new adventure.


	24. Chapter 23 - Tatooine (4 ABY)

**- - - - - 4 ABY - - - - -**

******- - - - - Ben Kenobi's Home - - - - -**

**- - - - - Tatooine - - - - -**

Fifteen-year-old Tess Naberrie stared into the absolute darkness, feeling the cold, heavy lightsaber in her hands. She pivoted to the left after sensing a need to do so, then second-guessed herself and twisted to the right just in time to block a blast from a hovering laser remote.

"So you said the Force can obey your commands," Tess pondered. "But Master Yoda said that it controls your actions. Which is it?"

"Both," Luke clarified. Tess' question had distracted her and the laser remote doled out its punishment to her arm. She winced and took off her blast helmet.

"I thought where the thing was hovering through the helmet," Tess explained, disabling the blue-green lightsaber that took her a month to construct. She gave herself a moment to catch her breath. That laser remote had her running all about the room and she was exhausted.

"What do you expect I would say to that?" Luke asked her. Tess sighed, nodding knowingly.

"Your eyes can deceive you," she recited. "Don't trust them."

"Stretch out with your feelings," Luke added.

Tess looked over at her secret master. In just one year, Luke Skywalker had aged significantly. While boarding an Imperial vessel a few months ago, he was infected with a lethal disease called Crimson Forever. He was cured after some serious dirty work on Leia, Lando, and Tess' part, but the disease had taken with it Luke's youthful glow. He now looked more like a man than a boy. A Jedi Knight.

Tess' training had remained a secret to both Leia and Chewbacca for a standard year now. Since his best friend's pre-carbon freezing wish was that Chewie look after Leia and Tess, and with Luke looking after the latter, the Wookie became just as loyal to the Alderaanian princess as he was to Han. Chewie therefore could not be trusted with the truth. Lando Calrissian, on the other hand, had walked in on a floating plate several months ago and Luke and Tess were forced to explain.

There was never a dull moment on the Millennium Falcon these days. For a while, they had a new companion working with them even if just for the money. He was a smuggler and exceptional pilot named Dash Rendar, and an old friend of Han's. Leia had managed the funds that convinced him to find out where the carbon-frozen Han had been taken. Unfortunately, he had been killed in the explosion of a timely escape from The Black Sun.

From droid impersonations of Rebellion finance ministers, to visiting a Master Yoda on the Dagobah System, to investigations of Imperial activity, to shuttle crashes, to creepy unattractive species lusting after Leia, to the monthly vengeful death plots, Tess could honestly say she never got bored.

Leia seemed to wrap herself up in Imperial business until Dash found where Han had been taken. She was good at it, too. Anyone who didn't know her would not suspect for a moment that the man she loved was nowhere to be found. However, those who really know her could see that many of her Rebellion efforts had connections to finding Han, so Leia distanced herself from them. It made Luke and Tess' training easier—that was for sure. Luke had even taken Tess to the Dagobah System to see Master Yoda twice.

For the longest time, the little green Jedi Master did not seem to think much of Luke while training him. Understandably when Luke brought Tess and revealed his intentions of training her, Yoda found the idea absurd. But when Luke demonstrated his training techniques, Yoda saw potential.

"Train yourself as you train your Padawan," the green creature had told him, "As Obi-Wan trained you. And soon, powerful Jedi you both shall be."

Somehow, Luke understood the Force better while training Tess than he did when enduring his own training; but once he realized that he improved himself a great deal, quickly impressing the three-foot Jedi Master. Luke still visited Yoda to continue his training, and as of now he was considered a Jedi Knight. Tess continued her training with Luke whenever he came back.

As far as training went, the fact that there were no known Force-sensitives besides the given company and Yoda did not give Tess much to compare to. Tess excelled in Force persuasion to the point that she successfully convinced Chewbacca and Dash that they had seen nothing when they witnessed her constructing her lightsaber. She had the Jedi Code memorized by heart and was getting better with the laser remote every day. Still, after what they had run into with the Empire before, Tess wanted to be able to defend herself. She saw what the Force was capable of when she ripped the jaw off of Admiral Chid Deltrod. She did not want to do that again, of course, but Tess wished she could harness control of a more light side appropriate form of that power. Considering the Empire's ever-increasing interest in her, part of her felt like her current training was fighting fire with ice.

The latest trip to the Dagobah System had left Luke more distant than usual. Tess longed to ask him about it, but their relationship when training was far different than their relationship in the cockpit of the Falcon. There, she could ask Luke anything. Here, Luke was Master.

Her thoughts bothering her, Tess removed her blast helmet and patted down the top of her long, single braid. She smoothed out her dark blue tunic, which could not help collecting dust on a planet like Tatooine.

"Something troubling you?" the amazingly observant Jedi Knight asked. Luke handed Tess some water and motioned for her to sit down. "You may rest."

Tess took the water gratefully and sat down, catching her breath.

"Not much, Master," she told him vaguely. Then, she made up her mind to be honest. "You just seem different since you returned from training with Master Yoda. That's all."

Luke gave her a look. Tess immediately regretted saying it.

"You worry about furthering your own training, Tess," he said gently. "And calming your mind. I sense you have been slacking on your meditation."

"We thought we had a lead on finding Han," Tess defended. "With Leia and Chewie trying to bargain with that sexually-frustrated Prince Xizor and you on the Dagobah System, Lando needed help flying the Falcon." In her self-defense Tess had forgotten her more polite Padawan self.

"Sometimes I fear you think this is just a game," Luke sighed. "That Master and Padawan are little roles we play to entertain ourselves."

"Of course not, Master," Tess insisted. Though admittedly sometimes she did feel that way. She half-expected both of them to break character one moment and just burst into laughter.

"Then I insist you—"

Suddenly, Luke was cut off. Tess sensed it, too. Quickly, Luke grabbed the blast helmet out of Tess' hands and placed it on his own head, stuffed her lightsaber in one of the deeper pockets of his robe, and whipped out his own lightsaber.

Tess fell to the floor and positioned herself lying on her stomach with her feet in the air and her chin in her hands.

By the time Leia Organa entered the late Ben Kenobi's old house, she saw nothing but a Jedi practicing his Force reflexes while an observant Tess sat on the floor to watch. Luke expertly deflected each laser blast from the remote with his lightsaber while simultaneously expressing a helmet-muffled greeting to Leia.

Performance mode engaged, Tess turned to Leia with a smile.

"He got hit twice," she blurted. "If he gets hit again he owes me ten credits."

"Luke," Leia said seriously. Something about her tone was important. Luke heard it, too. He pulled himself away from his Force concentration so fast that he got hit by the laser remote again.

"Ten credits!" Tess exclaimed triumphantly, still in character.

"What is it?" Luke asked the princess. Both the Jedi Knight and his secret Padawan neared her.

"We're one step closer," she said with tentative relief, as if she was afraid to be too hopeful. "Lando conned his was into the Hutt Guardsman's Guild. It won't be long now until we can make our move."

"Don't worry," Luke assured Leia. "Han is a good as rescued."


	25. Chapter 24 - Tatooine (4 ABY)

Leia Organa could not stop the fluttering of nerves in her stomach if the galaxy depended on it. After so many false leads and failed attempts at catching up to Han, this one felt like they really had a chance. The princess looked down at her disguise. No one doubted that she was Boushh the Ubese bounty hunter on the Black Sun and she hoped no one would doubt it now either. In reality, Boushh was presumed dead, but hardly anyone knew that.

As a member of the Rebellion, Leia had concocted scheme after scheme to aid the Republic effort, but this was one of the most thought-out plans she had been involved in. Lando Calrissian was already at Jabba's palace on Tatooine, having been accepting into the Hutt Guardsman's Guild under the alias Tamtel Skreej. Leia had her Boushh costume ready to go and even brushed up on Ubese, which she already spoke a little of. Luke had fashioned a Padawan's robe from some of Ben's old clothes and constructed another lightsaber so Tess could believably disguise herself as his apprentice.

There was something unnerving about being in the former bedroom of a dead man though Leia never believed in ghosts. Luke once alluded that Ben Kenobi still contacted him through the Force—maybe that allowed for the ghost-like presence that the Alderaanian princess felt.

Leia's disguise smelled just as horribly as when it was given to her. She would have washed it, but she assumed the lingering Ubese smell would make her costume more believable. Leia struggled with one of the belts around the thick, brown tunic before she heard a knock outside the room. She swiveled to face Luke.

"Perfect timing," Leia told him with a smirk. She turned her back to give him access to the stubborn belt. "Can you help me with this?"

Luke nodded accommodatingly and entered the room to help her. He fastened the belt with ease, then took Leia gently by the shoulders. The princess sensed some unease from him.

"What's wrong?" Leia asked him.

Luke exhaled generously. His gaze fell to the little blue droid rolling in beside him.

"Master Yoda…" Luke began nervously. "Did you know that he knew your father? Bail Organa, I mean?" Everyone always felt like they had to clarify who they meant with the term 'father' when you were adopted, Leia had observed over the years. She scanned Luke's face. Leia was not expecting such a serious tone from him. It took her a moment to answer his question.

"Yes," Leia recalled. "They worked together in the years before the full rise of the Empire."

Luke nodded.

"Master Yoda received a message from your father years ago—soon after your adoption. Yoda gave me permission to take the message through Artoo so that I could show it to you."

Leia's eyes widened like saucers. Her father. She did not allow herself to think about him most of the time. She missed him so much.

"It concerns Tess," Luke added turning to leave the room. "I'll keep her out of hearing distance."

At that, Luke Skywalker left Leia alone with the droid. As much as Leia hated to taint her idealistic image of her late father, after finding out about Tess the secret child, Leia had so many questions. Would this message answer them? There was only one way to find out.

"Play the message, Artoo."

The little droid immediately beeped a response and a blue holoprojection emerged from his tiny frame. The blue fog was too static to make out a face at first, but moments later Leia recognized that the projected image was indeed her father. The holoprojected Bail Organa cleared his throat—a sentimentally familiar sound to his daughter.

"Jedi Master Yoda," Organa began. "I trust you have arrived safely at your destination. It has taken me several standard days to bring myself to create this message, so I assume the most effective attack would be to come out and say it. I have done something shameful. Following the adoption of my daughter Leia I became overwhelmed with a fear for her safety—knowing where she came from. Though I take complete responsibility, this fear brought me to the medical wing, where I thought I would solve all my problems. I ordered for the creation of a child. It sounds insane as I state the words. They created the child I asked for—another biological daughter of Padme Naberrie. I created a decoy for my Leia.

I returned to the medical center months later with regret towards the decision, but I had to check on the status of the child. She was supposed to have been fully developed by then, using chemical processes similar to Kamino cloning methods. But the experimental procedure failed and her artificial womb growth was instead slowed. Though the child would grow normally once she reached full term, she was no longer a possible decoy for my daughter. I took this as a time for me to redeem myself. The child I speak of will be named Tess Naberrie, and in seven years when she grows to full term in the provided artificial womb, I will take full responsibility for the care of this child.

I understand, Master Yoda, that this was a mistake. I know it complicates things. However, I will die before Tess knows that. I realize now that I have done nothing but put the children in more danger. They were separated for a reason, and adding a third to the mix just increases their chances of detection. I found it necessary that you be informed of this change in the developments.

I sincerely apologize for going against the original plan that you, Obi-Wan and I worked so carefully to unfold. And again, take this message as my acceptance of responsibility for the creation of Tess Naberrie, and my willingness to take care of this child not just as the half-sister of my child—but as if she were my own daughter."

The blue holoprojection flashed off.

Leia just sat there, frozen, staring at the empty space where it used to be.


	26. Chapter 25 - Tatooine (4 ABY)

_Happy Valentine's Day, readers! In honor of the holiday, I'll be finishing up Tatooine before the night is out!_

* * *

_Her thick, black cloak heavy around her, Tess spun to her right towards her unseen assailant. _

_"Where do I go, Master?" she called out._

_"Towards the one you must destroy," hissed a dark voice—old and decrepit, with a chill in each syllable. _

_"How will I know?" Tess asked of the Master. She could feel the frustration of not being able to see her attacker rise. "Show yourself!" she demanded of him. _

_As if in response, three figures in cloaks appeared in front of her, all bowing their heads so that the hoods covered each face. One cloak was white, one blue, and the other black. _

_Suddenly, all three heads looked up, but their faces seemed blurry. They all spoke at once. Tess could not tell who was saying what. It was unclear whether the voices even came from these three figures at all. There were at least three at first, then they exploded into uncountable numbers, all muffled with screams of terror shouting over them._

_"I need this child to be—"_

_"—Sister—"_

_"—Anakin, you're breaking my heart!—"_

_"—that boy was our last hope—"_

_"—oh…ah…Ahh!—"_

_"—Obi-Wan, there is still good—"_

_"—How old is she? Is she my age?—"_

_"—no, there is another—"_

_"—strike me down with it—"_

_"—a decoy for—"_

_ "—then you won't mind if we—"_

_"—it's a boy—"_

_"—you're like family to me—"_

_"—adding a third into the mix just increases their chances of—"_

_"—an abomination, nothing less—"_

_"—Ahhh!—" _

_"—and a girl—"_

_"—Give into your anger!—"_

_"—baby girl. She will be loved with us—"_

_"—a scientific experiment gone wrong—"_

_"—Female Child Naberrie—"_

_"—NOOOOO!—"_

_"—my acceptance of responsibility for the creation—"_

_"—separate, the children shall be kept—"_

_"—so, you have a twin sister—"_

_"—Tess...—"_

_ "—I'm going to need you to go back to the cottage on your own—"_

_"—Tess, run!—"_

_"—AHHHHHH!—"_

_"—TESS!—"_

_"—AN ABOMINATION!"_

* * *

"NO!" Tess screamed, bolting upright in her bed. In doing so, she slammed her head into Luke's.

"Ow!" Luke exclaimed. He rubbed his temple. Tess gasped in shock.

"I'm sorry!" she exclaimed. "I was…I—"

"That was some dream," Luke muttered, sitting at the end of the bed. "You're sweating bullets."

Tess looked down at her sand-colored tunic. You couldn't see from the outside of the thick material, but on the inside, she was soaked with gross sweat. Her wavy hair was matted against her head, neck, and cheeks. Luke left momentarily and returned with a wet cloth for Tess' forehead. He let her catch her breath.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked softly. Tess shook her head.

"Just some nightmare," she returned nonchalantly. "I don't even remember it anymore." Tess wiped off her face and brought herself to a stand. "Any word from Leia?"

"She made it to the Jabba's Palace," Luke updated her. "She has seen Han."

Tess' attention snapped up to Luke.

"She has?" the girl exclaimed excitedly. She could have jumped up and down with joy. Almost a year of searching and never had they been so close to saving their friend.

"Don't let yourself expect so much," Luke cautioned. "Even with success so near in sight."

Tess shook off his warning. This was good news, and she wasn't about to let her secret Master be a downer.

Leia would most definitely succeed, and they would be off this planet with Han by morning.


	27. Chapter 26 - Tatooine (4 ABY)

Luke and Tess held their breath as they listened to the sound device attached to Leia's disguise. It was designed so that they could hear everything going on around her, but they could not communicate with her.

However, Luke and Tess were regretting the use of that particular device because it was indescribably frustrating not being able to remind Leia that they were still listening for updates. She seemed to forget they could hear her at all, so the Jedi Knight and his secret Padawan were left in the dark.

After nearly two standard hours of complete silence, Luke rose to his feet to make something for dinner. As if Leia was just waiting for them to get distracted before she did something interesting, Tess suddenly heard a beeping sound come through the gadget.

"Luke, wait!" Tess halted, picking up the contraption so she could listen more closely. Luke leapt back over to the small table in the late Ben Kenobi's sitting room so he could listen as well.

"What is it? Did she say something?" Luke asked anxiously. Tess hushed him just in time for them to hear a loud, metallic thump. Tess and Luke exchanged worried glances. A gap of silence over the device seemed to last an eternity. Then, there was a dull humming sound.

"Is that it?" Tess wondered aloud, though she realized a moment later that Luke knew no more about the sounds of carbon unfreezing than she did. Proving her hypothesis true, Luke shrugged.

The two of them listened even more carefully—so carefully that when Leia's altered voice came through, they nearly jumped out of their skins.

"Just relax for a moment," Leia began though her voice distorter. Tess and Luke shared the initial thought that the princess was speaking to them. Logic kicked in moments later. "You're free of the carbonate."

Tess and Luke could have leapt in the air with joy.

"We did it!" Tess squealed, clapping her hands together. She was too relieved to be disappointed that they would not be carrying out the back-up plan she and Luke had concocted.

Unlike his Padawan learner, Luke resisted such hasty assumptions. He kept listening through the hearing device.

It was a good thing he did, because a deep Hutt laugh flipped their plans upside-down.

"No…" Tess gasped. She returned quickly to the table. Neither she nor Luke spoke Huttese, so they had to guess what Jabba was saying based on Leia's responses.

"We have…powerful friends!" Leia muttered, clearly trying to maintain her diplomatic composure. "You're going to regret this!"

A few more words in Huttese and then Luke and Tess nearly lost their lunch at the sloshing sound that could only be described as a wet, sloppy lick from a Hutt. They heard the muffled rummaging of Leia getting carried off somewhere before the hearing device went static.

Luke and Tess slowly raised their eyes to look at each other.

"Well," Luke decided. "Looks like you will get to be my Padawan learner in public after all." He stood up, strangely composed as would be expected of a Jedi. "Get your things. We're going to Jabba's Palace."


	28. Chapter 27 - Tatooine (4 ABY)

_**- - - - - Jabba The Hutt's Palace - - - - -**_

Tess looked down at her new Padawan robes, their off-white color turning tan with the Tatooine sand glowing below her. She had her long, dark hair pulled back into a single braid with a few escaping ringlets around her face. Her left hip was heavy with the weight of her lightsaber.

"That's it, huh?" Tess assumed. She was referring to the large, metal-looking establishment ahead of them. Luke nodded.

"Remember, you say nothing," Luke reminded his Padawan. "Just stand besi—"

"Just stand beside you unless asked to do otherwise," Tess finished. She gave him a look. "I know."

Normally, he would scold her for something like that, but they were both too nervous to continue the conversation. Jabba's Palace was a mere step away.

Luke reached the door first. He stood. Listened. Tess almost said something because he was taking so long to debate going inside or not.

Then suddenly, a small hatch on the door opened. A surveillance droid with a large eyeball at the end of it emerged to look at Tess and Luke.

"Tee chuta hhat yudd!" it snapped.

With a wave of his hand, Luke sent the surveillance droid back into its circular hatch and the large main door began to grind itself upwards. Tess looked at her master, impressed.

"That was easy," she muttered to herself.

Once the doors fully opened, a rather unattractive Twi'lek greeted them. He spoke in a rushed Huttese.

"I must speak with Jabba," Luke told him simply. The Jedi Knight and his young Padawan backed the Twi'lek down the hallway. Tess soon realized that Luke was influencing his thoughts.

Tess and Luke finally found themselves face-to-slug face with a sleeping Jabba the Hutt. His throne room was dark, with shades of rusty brown and metallic silver. It smelled horrible—like a mixture of sweat and alcoholic drinks.

The large brown slug was the most disgusting Hutt that Tess had ever seen. He was nothing but a mass of slimy rolls and flab that could speak. Tess noticed that the human slave dancer chained to the slug had caught eyes with her when—wait, _Leia_?!

Luke, having seen the princess before Tess, readily placed a calming hand on her shoulder. In taking a deep breath, she also met eyes with a disguised Lando Calrissian. The gambler gave her a friendly wink.

"At last! Master Luke and Mistress Tess have come to rescue me!" the golden Threepio cried out with relief. He had been assigned as Jabba's translator.

His mind under Luke's control, the Twi'lek approached the giant sleeping slug and woke him with Luke's introduction. Jabba's loud arousal woke most of the remaining creatures in the room. Tess looked at Leia worriedly. It seemed like every move Jabba made pulled on the collar around her neck. It looked painful.

"I must be allowed to speak," Luke insisted in response to Jabba's Huttese dismissal. The Twi'lek translated, but the slug must not have liked what he said because he took a giant flabby arm and knocked the assistant down.

Throwing the hood of his cloak off his head and staring intently at the Hutt, Luke stepped forward.

"You will bring Captain Solo and the Wookie to me."

Jabba let out a deep Hutt laugh. Clearly, the mind trick had not worked. Acting on instinct and not on her training, Tess stepped forward.

"We insist that you bring us Han Solo and Chewbacca," she demanded.

The Hutt's face changed for a moment. Luke glared at Tess, but she did not take her eyes off the slug. She didn't know if her master was disappointed for her talking out of turn, or impressed. Tess knew she had Jabba—for a moment. Still, longer than Luke did.

"I'm taking Captain Solo and his friends," the Jedi Knight told Jabba while he was slightly infected with the mind manipulation. "You can either profit by this, or be destroyed. It's your choice, but I warn you not to underestimate my powers."

Jabba interrupted with more Huttese, prompting his guards to advance. Luke used the Force to take a blaster from one of the guards, and Tess did the same to another creature wielding a blaster so she could shoot a Gamorrean who lunged towards Luke's arm.

Only then did Tess see what she and Luke were standing on. It was definitely some sort of trap door, and as soon as she saw it she got a feeling they needed to move. But before she could warn him, the trap door opened, sending them tumbling down into a pit under the floor with Leia screaming after them.

Luke managed to tumble to his feet somehow, but Tess was less agile and found herself covered in sand. She also felt a jab in her side.

"Are you alright?" Luke asked, helping Tess to her feet. She nodded, favoring her injured side and giving a worried Leia a look of reassurance from far below.

"Some sort of remains," Tess pointed out, referring to the culprit of her injury. Luke nodded in agreement, his expression worried. Tess followed his thoughts. _Remains from what creature's meal?_

As if to answer their question, a large door in front of them creaked open. The bottom of the door was structured in sharp points like teeth, creating the illusion of a giant creature opening his mouth. Inside that mouth was an equally terrifying creature—if not more so. A rancor.

Behind the shadows, two large hands with fingernails as big as Tess were the first to emerge, followed by a slimy, red and brown mass of a humongous monster. He roared at the two invaders, his fingers wide open as if to grab them as his next meal.

The Gamorrean that Tess had shot had also fallen down with them. He became the appetizer for the giant rancor, which easily crushed the plump, green Gamorrean head inside his mouth.

"Luke…?" Tess stammered expectantly. She did not know what was scarier—the rancor, or the fact that Luke did not seem to know what to do.

"What do your instincts tell you?" Luke asked, his calm voice a confusing opposite to his wide, fearful eyes.

"That we're going to die?!" Tess blurted with terror. She looked between the two of them, comparing her white robes to Luke's black. "And since I didn't go all camouflage, looks like I'm the first course."

Luke rushed over to another pile of remains in the corner, where he grabbed a large bone.

"What about your lightsaber?" Tess asked hurriedly, pulling out her own.

"One of them grabbed it from me."

"They wha...?—Then take mine! You're the Jedi Knight!" Tess insisted. Luke pushed it away and stepped back.

"Let the Force flow through you," he instructed with an annoying composure. "You can do this, Tess."

"Bu—but…it's a _rancor_!"

Tess faced the rancor with the lightsaber in hand, but the doubt was clear on her face.

"You know, now really is not surprise training time," she told him semi-sarcastically. Her hands shook with the weight of the lightsaber. Then, she second-guessed herself and tucked it safely in her robe before grabbing a large bone much like the one Luke had picked.

"What are you doing?" Luke asked, hiding his fear.

"Saving the shiny weapons for the finale," Tess explained simply. "Hey!" she called out to the monster. "Down here! Pretty white lunch, right here! Don't go for the guy in black, he tastes weird."

"Tess…" Luke said hesitantly. Tess ignored him.

"Come here, buddy…" she taunted the rancor. He responded angrily and whipped his large hand in her direction. Suddenly, Tess felt his fingers around her waist and her feet come off the sand.

"Tess!" Luke cried out. "Focus! Go with your instinct—you can do this!" If Tess didn't know any better, she would say Luke was trying to convince himself more than her.

With a knowing certainty of success, as the rancor pulled Tess closer to his mouth, she placed the bone inside, trapping his jaws open.

"Good!" she heard Luke congratulate her from below.

The rancor dropped Tess back to the sandy ground, where she pulled out her lightsaber and stood in front of her ill-armed master.

"That was my idea," Luke mused, partially to himself. Tess smirked.

"Maybe you should shield your thoughts better."

Tess intentionally waited until the rancor's hand was about to grab her again before she ignited the energy of her lightsaber with an electrical hum. With two slices, she amputated three rancor fingers and then its entire wrist.

With that distraction, Luke took the opportunity to run to the other side of the pit and try to pad open a door. To their dismay, there was nothing but unbreakable durasteel bars on the other side. Luke angrily shook them before moving on to a new tactic.

"Tess!" he called. "Let me lure it over here!"

Tess glanced over at him unsurely.

"I can get the second arm in—"

"Just do it!" Luke demanded, as if Tess' successful strike at the rancor's arm was just luck. She finally decided to obey her master and turned off her lightsaber. By backing into a corner, she hid herself enough to allow the rancor to be distracted by Luke.

"Hey!" he called after it, waving his arms. The simple-minded rancor immediately trudged in Luke's direction. "Tess, get on this side of the door!"

Acting on instinct as always, Tess raced in that direction. But rather than slip under the rancor's legs, she Force-jumped onto its back.

Her thoughts just seemed to slip away as adrenaline took over and had her running up the rancor's spine to his neck, where she slashed her lightsaber down deep and hard into the flesh. With athletic grace, she pulled her weapon out and flipped over to Luke's side of the door.

The Jedi Knight stood with a gaping mouth as he watched the rancor's heavy head detach from the neck and fall at his feet. Tess looked up at him with a boastful grin.

"You're welcome."


	29. Chapter 28 - Tatooine (4 ABY)

Luke and Tess' success in the rancor pit enraged Jabba the Hutt, and the nasty slug-like creature demanded that they, along with Han and Chewbacca be brought before him.

Tess had fought off and killed four guards with her lightsaber before they surrounded her heavily enough to take it away. She and Luke were dragged from a lower level of Jabba's Palace back to the throne room. As they rounded one corner, they were both relieved to see Han Solo and Chewbacca despite the circumstances.

"Han!" the two called out to him in unison. It took him a moment to pick the voices out, considering he was temporarily blind from the carbon freezing.

"Luke?" he replied unsurely. Tess could see that Leia's name was on the tip of his tongue as his guess for the second voice, so she corrected him before he made the mistake.

"And Tess."

Han smirked.

"I knew the Empire would be begging for us to take you back after a day with you," he joked lightheartedly. Tess couldn't help but laugh. She was just so glad he was back.

"You alright?" Luke asked. Han responded affirmatively. The guards still led all three of them down the hall, and with Tess' size and unfaltering retaliation she found herself being practically carried.

"Together again, huh?" Han mused sarcastically.

"Wouldn't miss it," Luke added. Tess scoffed and gave her own input.

"I just hope Leia doesn't have any other carbonate boyfriends we have to worry about."

Han perked up at the familiar name.

"Where is Leia?"

"I'm here," the princess answered.

In more light-hearted circumstances, Tess would have gave Han a little hint as to what he was missing concerning Leia's wardrobe, but now was not the time to get him all hot and bothered.

Once again they found themselves facing Jabba the Hutt, with Threepio at his side as a translator.

"Oh dear…" the droid responded nervously to the Hutt's latest declaration. Threepio then began translating: "His high exaltedness, the Great Jabba the Hutt, has decreed that you are to be terminated…immediately."

"Good, I hate long waits…" Han muttered.

"You will therefore be taken to the Dune Sea," Threepio continued, "And cast into the pit of Carkoon, the nesting place of the all-powerful Sarlaac. In his belly, you will find a new definition of suffering as you are slowly digested over a thousand years."

Han's eyes widened.

"Let's pass on that."

Tess nodded in agreement.

"Yes, please."

"The child Tess Naberrie," the protocol droid continued sadly. "Will be delivered to the Empire by the bounty hunter Boba Fett after witnessing your execution."

Suddenly, the Sarlaac pit did not sound so bad to Tess.


	30. Chapter 29 - Tatooine (4 ABY)

_**- - - - - The Barge - - - - -**_

Tess cringed at the disgusting creature that took a beverage off her tray. With Boba Fett present at the execution, Jabba thought it best to keep the fifteen-year-old busy by having her serve drinks along with Artoo.

Tess tried her best to make her way over to Leia, who was watching the execution preparation through the window.

"Are you alright?" she whispered once she was close enough. She was careful not to look at the princess. Fortunately, the people around her seemed uninterested with what she was saying or unfamiliar with Basic.

"Yeah," came the reply. "We won't let the Empire get hold of you again. I promise."

Tess gave Leia a quick reassuring glance.

"I know."

Jabba must have seen them talking, because he immediately gave Leia's chain a pull. The princess held back, but Tess could tell it was extremely painful. She could see how the collar was digging into her skin, leaving red marks on her shoulders and neck.

* * *

"I think my eyes are getting better," Han mused. "Instead of a big dark blur, I see a big light blur." The blinding was starting to give him a headache, but that was the least of his complaints as they were lead off to their execution.

"There's nothing to see," Luke's voice assured him. "I used to live here, you know."

"You're going to die here, you know," Han pointed out. "Convenient."

"Just stick close to Chewie and Lando," Luke instructed. "I've taken care of everything out here, and Tess is handling the situation in the barge."

Han held himself back from laughing.

"Tess?!" he blurted. "We are talking about the same twelve-year-old, right?"

"She's fifteen," Luke corrected. "And in the year you've been incapacitated, she has become quite capable. Trust me. Tess and Leia can handle themselves."

Han let that sink in a moment. A year. Luke was a Jedi Knight, apparently—so Chewie had told him. Tess was suddenly just as capable as Leia, and Lando was part of the gang? Han once thought only his plans sounded that crazy and worked.

* * *

Interrupting a whispered conversation between Tess and Leia, the princess felt a sudden yank on her neck collar as she was dragged to Jabba the Hutt. His Twi'lek assistant Bib Fortuna placed a sturdy hand at her back to hold her in place.

As the Hutt said something in his language, Leia could smell his disgusting breath. It wreaked of decay as if the bugs he ate just sat inside him and died, drowning in the nauseating drinks he would gulp down all day.

Leia hated him.

She didn't just hate him as the no-good Hutt that he was, but for doing this to her. Leia knew she was considered attractive, but for the extent of her career thus far she had made it a priority to prove that she was more than a pretty face. She was a diplomat. A leader of the rebellion. But this Hutt had demoted her to this humiliatingly sexualized slave.

* * *

Hovering over the sands of Tatooine in one of Jabba's speeders, Luke looked down into the mouth of the Sarlaac. It was just a deep pit at first glace. Then, he saw the camouflaged spikes poking out around the perimeter. Long tentacles weaved their way out as if testing the light before the true beast emerged—a giant beak with a large tongue big enough to swallow five men whole.

Luke watched a plank extend from the speeder, then took a brave step forward. He brought his eyes up through the suns of Tatooine and aimed where he imagined Jabba the Hutt would be behind the barge windows.

He saw a glare bounce off something to the right of the barge. The voice clarified that it was Threepio translating for the Hutt.

"Victims of the almighty Sarlaac," Threepio began. "His Excellency hopes that you will die—honorably—but should any of you wish to beg for mercy, the great Jabba the Hutt will now listen to your pleas."

"Threepio!" Han spat. "You tell that slimy piece of worm-ridden filth he'll get no such pleasure from us!" The smuggler turned unsurely to his furry Wookie counterpart. "Right?"

Chewbacca growled what Luke assumed was a negative response. Before the Wookie could emit his pleas of mercy, which the guard would surely confuse as angry retaliation, Luke once again looked up to where he imagined Jabba would be.

"Jabba," the Jedi Knight said, using a bit of Force persuasion. "This is your last chance. Free us or die."

* * *

"Free us or die," Tess mouthed along with Luke. She couldn't help but grin—she was always the optimistic one with their schemes. It was a bit harder with the possibility of her being delivered to the Empire, but she still managed.

Tess watched Artoo roll into position, a tiny hatch at the top of his dome opening ever so slightly.

"Tess," Leia whispered from beside her. Tess looked over in acknowledgement, surprised at the princess' nervous expression. "You're my sister."

"Come again?" Tess responded. She couldn't have heard that right.

"You _are _Padme Naberrie's daughter," Leia explained quickly. "You're my sister."

Tess' eyes stared forward with disbelief.

"And you waited until you thought we were going to die to tell me?!"

* * *

Jabba the Hutt ordered the guards to move Luke into position. Luke responded to the nudge, stepping out onto the plank.

Slowly, the Jedi Knight nodded at Lando to his right. Lando nodded back.

Next his eyes found Artoo. The droid rolled back slightly, preparing himself.

* * *

Leia Organa bit her lip nervously, her eyes locked on Luke, trying to convince herself that he could handle this. They had handled worse, hadn't they? Or was it not worse—just different?

Then, Leia caught Luke wink at Tess. She saw the fifteen-year-old wink back, then turn to the princess.

"Ready, sister?"

* * *

It seemed like Han just blinked before the tables turned completely. Luke shot up from the plank—somehow wielding his lightsaber now?—and started fighting back against the guards.

Han exchanged glances with the Wookie, who joined him in backing into a corner to give Luke some room.

"Man, when you said Jedi Knight, you weren't kidding."

* * *

"Yes!" Tess exclaimed excitedly, jumping up and down. Thanks to Artoo's stealthy delivery while they were serving drinks to the smelly masses, her lightsaber had been returned to her. She whipped the hidden weapon out of her boot. "Leia!"

Princess Reflexes immediately held out her hands so that Tess could cut through the wrist chains. Before she could continue to free Leia, though, a guard grabbed Tess from behind.

"The lights!" Tess muttered, struggling against the Gamorrean who had a hold of her. She nodded towards the electrical circuits beside Jabba. "Leia, get the lights!"

Leia immediately hammered the circuits until the room went black while Tess struggled to grab her lightsaber back from the Gamorrean. It took a moment, but she finally managed to knee him in the leg and retrieve her weapon.

Though Leia still did not know that Luke had been secretly training Tess, the fifteen-year-old decided against an unskilled façade. She adeptly guided the lightsaber through the arms and legs of the guards attacking her. Tess' adrenaline was sky-high with her first real taste of lightsaber combat.

"You okay?" Tess called out to Leia. It was hard to see with the lights out, but there were slatted beams of light coming from the makeshift windows of the barge.

"Fine," Leia grunted. Only then did Tess see what the princess has just done.

Leia had strangled Jabba the Hutt.

Tess just stood there, staring, having injured or scared away every guard in the room. Leia snapped her fingers in her sister's face.

"Jedi Master Naberrie," the princess teased hurriedly. "Can you use those miraculously-acquired lightsaber skills again and get rid of these chains?"

* * *

The ever-capable Luke seemed to get himself on top of the barge just as Leia and Tess climbed up from the lower level. Swamped with attackers, he was definitely relieved to see their best shot.

"Get the gun!" he ordered the princess. "Point it at the deck!"

Her golden bikini and thin red cloth attachment covering close to nothing, Leia still managed to handle the gun turret.

Tess whipped out her lightsaber and took Luke's blind side to help fight off the rest of the guards. She had not held her stance for a moment before two strong hands came out of nowhere, knocking her lightsaber away and pinning her against the gun turret with a thud. Tess found herself staring at the helmet of Boba Fett.

Tess rapidly glanced around for help. Unfortunately, the bounty hunter had her pinned behind the gun turret, which blocked Luke's view and was too close for Leia to see, much less shoot. They wouldn't see her unless they noticed she wasn't there, which was highly unlikely considering how many guards were attacking them.

"You seriously think I was going to let you get away with the bounty the Empire has on your head, kid?" he sneered. "Maybe you can see your friend the IT-O Interrogator again."

Tess struggled beneath his grasp.

"I heard all about you, Tess," Fett continued. "The creation. Some say the faulty chosen one. Trying to be a Rebel now."

"I am a part of the Rebellion!" Tess spat, still struggling uselessly. She did not let it show, but she was terrified.

"Oh, no, Tess," chuckled the bounty hunter. "Didn't they tell you? You were created by the Empire. _For _the Empire. You might as well drop off your little friends now, because you're just going to be the one killing them anyway."

In that moment, it was as if Tess left herself and the Force took over. She felt a charge of something—energy, adrenaline…something—completely fill her blood. Then the charge spiked, sending a jolt throughout her body, only to be released through her fingers in the form of blue lightening.

The unexpected attack sent Boba Fett over the lip of the barge, screaming as he fell into the Sarlaac pit.

Stunned, Tess stared down at her fingers.

She looked up and, having defeated the remaining guards, Luke and Leia were looking at her, just as bewildered.

They all snapped out of their stares when they heard Han calling out to them from the speeder nearby.

"Hey, let's get outta here!"

Luke, Leia, and Tess exchanged glances between each other before Luke hopped up on the gun turret and pulled a cable device out of his belt.

"Come on," he waved to Leia. She grabbed onto him and he grabbed onto the cable.

"You can get back for Tess, right?" Leia asked him. Tess and Luke exchanged a smirk.

"It's kind of hard to hide it now," Luke admitted. Tess let out an exaggerated sigh.

"Yeah, I'm Force-sensitive, Luke's training me as his Padawan, I'll fill you in on the rest later." At that, she Force-jumped from the barge to the speeder, leaving Leia wide-eyed and Luke holding back laughter.

"What?" Tess called back to the princess. "You think you're the only one who can make surprising revelations amidst the unraveling of our monthly escapades with life-or-death situations? Think again!"


	31. Chapter 30 - Millennium Falcon (4 ABY)

**_- - - - - The Millennium Falcon - - - - -_**

Luke fiddled with his scratched-up lightsaber as he waited for his Padawan to prepare for meditation.

"You know I hate meditation," Tess reminded him, tucking her legs under her. She sat against the wall on the bottom of a triple bunk on the Falcon.

Luke nodded absent-mindedly. He tucked his lightsaber back into his robe and took a knee in front of Tess.

"All the more reason why you should do it," he told the girl. "At the expense of sounding like Master Yoda, you are restless. You often act impulsively and even if those impulsive acts end up being the right thing to do, you need to learn how to make educated decisions in that same amount of time."

"And figure out where the finger lightening came from?"

"That too," Luke chuckled.

Tess was definitely a restless one, but there was a sort of modesty about her that amazed him. She was not modest in the traditional sense, but deep down she was.

Tess had no idea just how good she could be—just how much power was inside her. Luke felt something similar inside himself, but he had to work up to making use of it. With Tess, it was like the power spontaneously emerged whenever she needed it most.

It seemed all of these spontaneous Force bursts were created in defense. As glad as Luke was that she helped him get that lightsaber, and she protected herself from the admiral, and she destroyed Boba Fett, he knew that the Force was flowing through anxiety, anger, and fear in those moments.

The Jedi learn to use the Force in peaceful ways, summoning it with thought and void of emotion. The Dark Side of the Force is more centered on anger and fear. Of course, Tess still had the conscience of the good person that she was, but temptations of the Dark Side would be much harder to overcome for someone like Tess—unless she learned to use the Force properly. And that started with meditation.

"Leia's coming," Tess said softly, half-meditating. It had become an ongoing game between them to see who could sense Leia coming first. It was hardly fair on the Millennium Falcon since they were all so close. Here, Luke and Tess could sense Leia the moment she decided to come see one of them—it was just a matter of who said it first. This point definitely went to Tess.

"Keep meditating," Luke instructed, gently touching his Padawan's shoulder before leaving the room.

Luke closed the door behind him just as Leia rounded the corner from the bulkhead.

"We need to talk about this Jedi training thing," Leia sighed, as if she had been waiting all day to say that. In all honestly, Luke had been preparing for it since they got on the ship.

Having made herself at home on the Falcon in Han's absence, she had several outfits readily available on the Falcon. Within a standard hour of boarding Leia had showered away the grime of Jabba's Palace, fashioned her hair into her usual braid crown, and changed into a black jumpsuit. She used to wear colored ones, but Tess normally "borrowed" those and "misplaced" them in her own wardrobe, so Leia was left with blacks and whites. The princess did not seem to care much, though.

Leia lead Luke to the nearby lounge seats in front of the hologram board so they could talk. The princess collapsed into one of the chairs with a sigh, shaking her head slightly.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked softly, truly hurt. "After all that…all that's happened these past several months, how could you hide something like this from _me_? Especially after you found out that she was my sister!" Luke could see the pain in her eyes.

"We didn't know she was your sister until recently," he explained, knowing the response was stupid before he even said it.

"But you knew I loved her like family," Leia shot back. "My father helped raise her. She meant a lot to him, so she meant just as much to me. And the Empire is already after her—why give them a better reason?"

"I—"

Leia suddenly reached forward and grabbed his artificial hand.

"Vader took off your hand, Luke," she reminded him sternly, shaking his own hand in front of him as if it were evidence. "Tess will probably not be that lucky in the same situation. And you saw how they treated her on Bespin—they don't even consider her human." The princess paused, letting it all sink in. "You know I'm right."

"Can I get a word in now?" Luke asked gently. When Leia's diplomatic side took over, getting through it was like trying to take apart a building from the bottom floors without the whole thing crumbling down.

Leia gave the Jedi Knight a nod, permitting him to continue.

"It started on Hoth," Luke began. "When Tess found me in the wampa cave, I couldn't reach my lightsaber. I tried using the Force, but I was too weak at the time. Tess took my hand and suddenly it came right to me. That was when I realized that she was potentially Force-sensitive, but nothing more." Luke checked on Leia to make sure she was following and not doing her stubborn, arms-crossed, 'I'm not listening to a word you are saying' stance. She was listening, so Luke continued.

"I never told you what I walked in on when I found Tess in the torture room on Bespin," he explained softly, his blue eyes meeting her darker ones, which widened with fear. "Admiral Deltrod…his entire jaw had been ripped off. And Tess was huddling in the corner, crying, telling me over and over that she didn't mean to."

Leia shook her head with disbelief. "But...she couldn't have. Can…you even…can the Force do that?"

"She did. And yes," Luke assured her. "It's the fear she felt. The anger. Those emotions lead to the Dark Side. I saw her going down a path that could destroy her. She needed to be guided, Leia."

Luke watched as the princess mulled the idea over in her head. She wasn't used to losing the argument, especially concerning Tess. Both Han and Luke knew that Leia had the final say in the decisions regarding their youngest tagalong.

Before Leia could respond, Luke sensed something dark nearby.

_Tess_.

As if Luke said it out loud, Leia jumped to a stand just as soon as he did. They both raced to the bunkroom and Luke quickly padded the door. The emotions in that room were nearly blinding to Luke. Pain. And Fear.

So much fear.

Tess was just as Luke left her—sitting on the bed—but she was different. Though her eyes were closed, she managed what could only be described as a sinister stare, almost threatening. If Luke didn't know any better, he would say she wasn't breathing. She was as pale as a sheet.

Then suddenly, Tess erupted into a scream. Her eyes opened in terror and she pushed herself up against the wall behind her. She whimpered in fear of some unseen figure, muttering 'no' and 'stop' and blinking her eyes hard as if it would make it all go away.

Leia looked at Luke as if he would know what to do, but his look of pure horror scared her even more than Tess' state.

Luke saw exactly what he had feared—the Dark Side. That was the only way to explain the pit of anger and fear and revenge that he saw inside Tess' mind in that very moment. It was not her, but it was inside of her. And the latter was possibly more dangerous. If it was inside of her, there was no telling when it would come out. And how strong.

"Luke, do something!" Leia demanded. "What is it?!" By then, Han had raced over from the cockpit to see what was going on.

Then, just as quickly as Tess' screaming and crying had started, it stopped.

She looked up with watery brown eyes for just a moment, then they rolled back and Tess collapsed on the bed.

Leia was the first to race to her side.

"Tess?" she called softly. Luke watched the princess try to revive his unconscious Padawan, ignoring Han's questions about what happened.

Seeing that Tess was all right on the surface of things, Leia gently positioned her sister more comfortably on the bed and tucked her under the covers. She did not even look at Luke as she spoke to him, but that did not make her words any less serious.

"This training ends now."


	32. Chapter 31 - Endor (4 ABY)

_So sorry about the delay everyone! My computer crashed and I lost everything including two chapters that I loved, so I just lost interest for a while. I tried rewriting those ideas but the words just weren't coming, but then I pieced together what I wanted to do on Endor and the plan kind of came together. I don't want to spoil too much but aside from the possible short "afterthought" adventures of Tess and the group, this story will be tied up with a nice pretty space-bow by the end of Return of the Jedi's events._

* * *

**_- - - - - One Month Later - - - - -_**

**_- - - - - Rebel Ship in the Moddell Sector - - - - - _**

Leia Organa helped Tess Naberrie pull her long, dark hair back into a swirl of braids.

"Ow," Tess winced as her sister accidentally tugged the sensitive hairs at her neck. Leia ignored her.

"There you go," the princess said, plopping Tess' brown helmet on top of the braids and giving it a few knocks just to mess with her. Tess fastened the straps under her chin and rolled her head uncomfortably.

"I hate these things," she confessed. Leia nodded in agreement, adjusting her own helmet before leaving the room to make other pre-battle preparations—notably making out with Han in the supply closet.

Tess looked around at the other rebels, pulling their gear out of storage lockers and preparing for Endor. She felt their eyes on her every once in a while, and every whisper was no doubt a jab at the bitchy Alderaanian Princess and the teenage girl she dragged along.

"I still have no idea why Princess Leia drags that kid around this…I mean I've heard Tess was family or something, but if that were true its nothing to be ashamed of, so you'd think the princess would make that clear, right?"

"I hear Tess is her daughter," another suggested in a hushed whisper. "The princess hated being cooped up in a palace and got all rebellious when she was like 13, then went out and got herself pregnant."

"You're an idiot, the princess is 23 and the kid's 14."

"Maybe she was even younger, then!"

The fourteen-year-old tried to ignore them. While it bothered Tess considerably when they underestimated her, any simple poking fun behind her back was nothing. When they talked about Leia, on the other hand, Tess grew hot with anger. If they only knew the kind of person Leia was—the sacrifices she had made for the rebellion—they would be bowing at her feet.

"I don't trust this Princess," a woman behind her muttered. "I heard she's the reason Alderaan blew up."

That comment put Tess' blood on high boil.

The Alderaanian pushed her feet under her and stepped over one bench so that she was right behind the woman who made that comment.

"What did you say?" Tess muttered darkly.

The woman turned around, her frizzy blonde hair hanging around her ears. She chuckled at the sight of the teenager.

"Lost your babysitter, kid?"

Tess took a deep breath before repeating her question.

"What. Did. You. Say."

Apparently amused by Tess' seriousness, the woman rose to her feet, her height looming over the younger rebel.

"I said," the woman articulated. "She's the reason Alderaan blew up. Guess daddy didn't give her a big enough allowance."

Anger taking over completely, Tess thrust her fist up and connected with the frizzy-haired woman's face. A collective gasp and a varied array of murmurs filled the armor locker room. The woman fell back against a storage locker and Tess lunged towards her. Before she could deliver another blow, a man caught her around the waist and Tess' own speed had inertia sending her sprawling to the ground.

Tess shuffled to her feet, the voices of the other rebels flooding over each other.

"Guys, she's a kid, calm down!"

"What did she do?!"

"Hold her back—she's crazy!"

"What are you doing?!"

"This is ridiculous! Stop it!"

Before Tess could get to the frizzy-haired woman again, a man pulled her arm behind her back, practically immobilizing her.

"This isn't fucking school, kid," the man boomed over the roar or the rest of the rebels. "You can't just go around punching people you don't like. We're a team. We're fighting a war here."

The fourteen-year-old had been through enough combat training with Luke and Leia to know that trying to get out of that particularly restraining hold would get her nothing but a dislocated shoulder. The crowd suddenly parted and Tess saw the frizzy-haired woman open a locker across the room.

"She wants to act like we're in school?" the woman said. "We can play along."

* * *

Han watched as a couple dozen rebels filed out of the armor storage locker room. Leia was busy with other preparations and he needed to communicate to Tess what group they would be leaving with before the flood of rebels all dispersed and you couldn't find anyone unless they were wearing bright yellow.

After what appeared to be the last of the rebels exited the room, Han furrowed his brows in confusion. He pulled a blonde woman aside.

"Have you seen Tess? You know, the kid?" She shook her head.

Han knew Tess hated to be called that, but if a rebel didn't know Tess by name, they sure as hell realized that one particular rebel was a foot shorted than the rest and looked like she was ten years old.

Before he turned around to check for the kid somewhere else, Han heard something from the storage locker room—like the clanging of metal. He walked inside.

The room seemed empty at first, but then something caught the former smuggler's eye.

One of the storage lockers was moving. The handle tremored slightly as he heard mechanical twists and turns coming from inside it. His heart pounded out of pure uncertainty. What _was _that?

Then suddenly, the handle rose and the locker door swung open, sending Han several steps backwards with a gasp. Tess tumbled out.

"What the—Tess?" Han stammered. He still hadn't quite caught his breath. "What were you doing in there?"

Tess glared at him as if to tell him not to ask, but he didn't need to. He could see it all over the girl's face. This past month she had been especially quick to anger and he heard she had been in some quarrels with some of the other rebels. He could understand why she might get some teasing from the others—she was the youngest rebel and that gave them the impression that their rank in the rebellion means nothing when its shared with a 14-year-old girl—but that didn't mean Han liked it.

"You didn't see that," Tess told Han sternly, gesturing towards the locker.

"Didn't Luke and Leia decide on a Force break?" Han asked. Tess glared at him.

"Would you rather I stay in a locker while you guys get to deactivate the shield generator without me?" the teenager retorted. "These were special circumstances. You don't need to go running to your girlfriend telling her that her sister's a Jedi again."

Tess pushed past Han, but he caught her gently by the arm.

"Hey—" he halted, turning the kid around to make sure she was looking at him. He didn't mention it, but he could see tear stains down her cheeks. "Are you alright?"

Tess' angry glare softened and her breathing calmed. She nodded slowly. Han nodded back.

"Good," he said simply. He squeezed her shoulder a bit and led her out of the armor storage locker room.


	33. Chapter 32 - Endor (4 ABY)

**_- - - - - The Forest Moon of Endor - - - - -_**

Tess Naberrie looked down at the thick vines on the Endor ground. She was already a victim of condescension amongst the group, so the worst thing she could do was fuel the fire by being the first to trip. A drop of sweat trickled down Tess' ear. The helmets they wore were hot and sweaty. Only Han went without one—apparently his hair was too good for that.

Tess suddenly felt her feet leave the ground as Chewbacca lifted her over a tripping hazard. Her face turned red when she heard the rebels behind her chuckle. Despite her age, Tess had probably been at this longer than they had, and her blaster accuracy was only second to Leia. Besides, the Rebellion wasn't exactly the most funded of organizations, and pilots aside, the requirements were not extensive for a person to fight for the rebellion.

"Might as well ride on the Wookie's back," a woman muttered from behind Tess.

Han Solo—who was leading the group a few soldiers ahead—turned around just enough to keep the woman from adding another patronizing comment.

"Sure," he said with fake enthusiasm. "Put a gun in her hand and we've got a 10-foot turret with a thousand times more accuracy than any of you combined. And the Wookie is on her side, so you piss her off and that turret's coming after you." It almost sounded like a joke, but there was something in Han's tone of voice that seemed to put the rebels in their place. Chewbacca chuckled, and Tess grinned to herself.

Tess scanned the heads for Leia. With everyone's hair up in helmets and body covered in loose camouflage, there was little to tell the soldiers apart other than height. Fortunately—like Tess herself—Leia was one of the shorter ones. And of course it helped that she was normally near hat-a-phobic Han.

Just before Tess grew bored enough to count steps, Han lifted a hand, signaling the group to stop. Everyone had been almost trance-like in their walking by now so each soldier almost ran into the one in front of them. Han and Leia both glanced back at the rest of the soldiers to enforce the sudden halt, though Leia looked more like she was making sure everyone was still there. Tess made a face at her sister, making the princess reveal the tiniest smirk.

"Oh, I told you it was dangerous here," Threepio whined, throwing his golden arms up in his dramatic way.

"Shh!" Tess snapped.

Han motioned downwards and the troops—Tess included—took a knee in the tall mess of vines and leaves. General Solo waved Luke, Leia, and Chewie to follow him, and Leia motioned for Tess to do the same. The fifteen-year-old was used to that by now. This had only been her third real battle but that was enough to realize that even if it was moving from behind one tree to behind the next, Leia insisted Tess stay with her. At first, it was as annoying as the rest of Leia's protective tendencies, but Tess soon realized that being at Leia's side meant she got to do all the cool stuff while everyone else just waited.

Han lead the group of five around an astoundingly thick tree towards a fortress-like growth. They knelt behind it and peeked their heads over the moss. Kneeling beside Luke, Tess could see some speeder bikes and a small group of stormtroopers—not that they were hard to spot.

"You'd think with all of the money the Empire has," Tess thought aloud. "They would be able to buy camouflage suits." Luke chuckled, if only to appease her while her sister and carbonate boy finished counting the troopers and bikes.

"Should we try and go around?" Leia asked no one in particular.

"It will take time," reasoned Luke unenthusiastically. Though he was ever the dutiful follower of the Force and the ways of a proper Jedi, deep down he still could not shake much of his childish impatience.

Han seemed to be concocting something in his head. That, or he was thinking dirty thoughts about Leia. Tess could never tell those two faces apart. Finally, he added, "This whole party will be for nothing if they see us."

Chewie—too tall to manage a stealthy crouch—growled a suggestion from behind some branches. Han nodded and started to get up.

"Chewie and I will take care of this," he decided. "You three stay here." He looked from Leia to Luke to Tess—lingering just a moment on the last and most likely to disobey.

"Quietly!" Luke reminded his friend in a hushed tone. "There might be more of them out there."

Tess saw Han's cocky grin coming a mile a way.

"Hey, its me."

Luke, Leia, and Tess all watched him go, then faced forward to watch Han and Chewie's plan either crumble or succeed by some miraculous stroke of smuggler luck.

It seemed crumbling was the Force's decision for Han today, because one of the stormtroopers heard Han behind him and whipped an arm out, sending their friend into a tree. The stormtrooper called to the rest to go for help.

"Great," Luke groaned. Though like Tess, he probably saw it coming. "Come on!"

Luke pulled Leia to a stand. Tess jumped up to follow, but was nudged back down by Leia.

"Stay here," ordered the princess. "If anything happens or you think we should be back and we're not, take everyone at least a thousand metres back, if not more. I think one of the troopers was telling the others to get reinforcements, so they know we're here."

The group heard at least one of the stormtroopers race out on speeder bikes.

"Over there!" Leia alerted the Jedi. "Two more of them!"

Tess instinctively whipped out her blaster and shot one of the stormtroopers right in the back only seconds after he boarded the speeder bike.

"Make that one," Tess corrected. "Now go!"

With no time to thank her, Luke and Leia raced in the direction of the speeder bikes. Tess turned her attention back to Han, who was still wrestling with the stormtrooper. She pulled out her blaster, aimed, and fired. Only after hitting the trooper right between the eyes did she realize that as far as she was from the target and as close as he was to Han, she just as easily could have blasted his head off.

"Thank the Force for my genetic blaster accuracy," she muttered to herself, waving down to Han, who was reeling in search of the miracle blast from the sky that saved his life until he saw Tess.

"You're welcome," she yelled down, raising her blaster to clarify that it was where the shot came from.

Han grinned. He shook his head a bit and wagged a finger at her.

"I owe you one, kid."


	34. Chapter 33 - Endor (4 ABY)

"Wait, Leia!" Luke called after the princess, focusing all his energy on catching up with her. A simple task normally, but when your legs have known nothing but moving at a lethargic pace through vines and branches for hours, they forget how to run. Leia felt it, too, but she ignored it. She had her eyes on a speeder.

The princess reached the vehicle just as she lost sight of the stormtrooper, but she kept her eyes ahead and wouldn't accept the mere idea that she couldn't catch up with him. Leia didn't realize Luke was tagging along until she felt his hands around her waist, but with all of the trees clouding her vision she was glad Luke could be the one to pull out a blaster if they needed to.

"Do you know what you're doing?!" Luke asked nervously, holding on tighter as Leia picked up speed.

"Yes, thanks to two boys named Raal and Heeth Panteer," she quickly explained, raising her voice over the sound of the speeder bike engine. She didn't revert her focus from catching up with the stormtroopers. "From the patrician House of Panteer. They taught me everything I know and within a week I was beating them in every one of our midnight races to the local marketplace and back." Leia would have grinned a bit wider at the nostalgic memory, but Alderaan was such a bittersweet subject that she felt guilty doing so.

Luke raised an eyebrow. He always assumed Leia was raised to be a dutiful little princess—not a crazy kid whipping around the neighborhood on a speeder bike with the local boys.

"Midnight speeder bike races, huh?"

Leia grinned slightly, though Luke couldn't see her. "Not all of them…" she added mysteriously.

"Not all of them at midnight?" Luke inquired.

Leia grinned even wider.

"Not all of them were speeder bike races."

Luke let out an exaggerated gasp. "Where exactly did you corrupt these poor boys at midnight?!" he exclaimed playfully.

"Oh, only in the reflecting pools of Aldera," she sang. "Where Raal and I had our first kiss."

"Leia Organa—you little harlot!"

It had been so long since she allowed herself to get even partially distracted from the rebellion—or anything that wasn't somber or serious—this entire year. Laughing as she drove through the trees, Leia gave Luke a teasing kick in the shin.

"Ow!" he winced. "Not bad for a princ—"

"Look!" Leia interrupted him and pointed ahead, where the stormtrooper they were searching for was clearly in sight. "Get your blaster ready."

Luke obeyed as the princess sped up and brought their speeder bike parallel to the stormtrooper's. He did a double-take, then realizing he had been followed he rammed his speeder into theirs.

"Dropped my gun…" Luke muttered with frustration.

As the trooper aimed for another bash into the side of their speeder, the Jedi expertly hopped behind the enemy and flipped the white armored clone off the bike.

Suddenly, a blast shook the speeder bike that Leia was driving. They turned around to see two more troopers on bikes behind them. One of the two sped up to get closer and the other lagged behind for defense.

"You get the closer one—I'll take the one in the back," Luke instructed. He immediately slowed his speeder, creating the illusion of him flying backwards.

As if agreeing to their plan, the stormtrooper closest to Leia sped up until he was right by her side. Unlike his friend, this one chose to use a blaster. Leia ducked just in time to spare her head.

Before she could retreat behind him and try blasting him with the bike, the stormtrooper aimed his blaster at her speeder's thrust flap. With her vehicle rendered useless, Leia was forced to tumble off the side.

The princess crashed through branches into a blanket of vines on the Endor ground. Worried she had just failed at preventing Empire reinforcements from attacking her friends, she only raised her head long enough to see the enemy's speeder fly into some sort of tree remains. After that, Leia's head fell into the dirt as she fell unconscious.

* * *

In all of her days on Dantooine that Tess spent looking at the ruins of the old Jedi Temple and imagining herself fighting alongside Jedi and soldiers alike in attempt to destroy the evil Darth Malak, she never fantasized that rebellion would require this much waiting.

It had been at least two standard hours since Luke and Leia took off on speeders, leaving their squad sitting in several clumps of casual conversation. Though he wouldn't admit it, Han was too worried to talk and Tess was far from desperate enough to start a chat with Threepio, so she found herself twisting small vines into bracelets. By now she was wearing one and the fashionable Chewie was sporting three on each wrist.

Just as Tess finished up her seventh vine bracelet, Threepio tottered over the vinces towards Han.

"General Solo, somebody's coming!" said the protocol droid.

Tess replaced the bracelet in her hand with a blaster as the rest of the squad got the same idea. Han motioned for her to take cover behind the tree where he and Chewbacca stood.

"Wait," Tess whispered to Han. "I think its Luke."

Han took a better look in the distance. "I don't see him."

"Neither do I," the fifteen-year-old said with intentional ambiguity. Han gave her a look, seeing as they both knew Tess was Force-grounded. But it wasn't like she could help feeling Luke's presence.

"Now I see him!" Tess breathed with a smile. Her relief was half because he was okay, half because now they could move.

"Luke!" Han called, approaching his friend. Tess followed, looking behind him for Leia. The General asked the question on the teenager's mind. "Where's Leia?"

"What—she didn't come back?" Luke exhaled. His blue eyes widened with worry. Han tensed up.

"I thought she was with you."

"We got separated!" the Jedi told him defensively. "We better go look for her."

Tess' heart started to pound. She couldn't feel Leia nearby. When she reached out for her sister through the Force, all she felt was this horrifying emptiness.

"The forest is so dense here—what if her speeder ran into a tree?" Tess panicked. "She could be really hurt! Or…"

"Your sister knows what she's doing, Tess," Luke assured her. "She said she raced speeder bikes as a kid. I'm sure she just found herself further out than I did and its taking her longer to walk back."

Not letting himself think about where Leia could be or what could have happened to her, Han turned to the soldiers.

"Take the squad ahead," he ordered. "We'll meet at the shield generator at 0-300."

Luke motioned for the droids to follow as he started northwest with Han, Tess, and Chewbacca.

"Come on, Artoo, we'll need your scanners." The smaller droid beeped an excited response as he rolled after the others.

"Don't worry, Master Luke and Mistress Tess—we know what to do!" announced Threepio. He turned to his counterpart. "And you said it was pretty here…"

Tess glared back at the panicky droid. "How does a pile of scrap metal sound to you? Pretty?"

The golden droid stopped in his tracks and if he had an expression, it would be one of pure shock.

"Good heavens, no."


	35. Chapter 34 - Endor (4 ABY)

The search for Leia was a dead end so far. Two scans four hundred metres apart resulted in no trace of her and Tess was growing more and more worried by the minute.

Looking at the wrecked speeder that Han found, Tess couldn't stop imagining Leia's charred, lifeless body crumpled beside it. She turned around and found Luke staring at something in his hands.

"Did you find something?" Tess asked him, hopping over a log.

The Jedi made a failed attempt to hide what he found behind his back. Realizing there was no use in hiding it from her now, he handed over the helmet in his hands. Tears stung Tess' eyes, but she didn't let them fall.

"Leia's…?" she stammered. Luke nodded solemnly. Tess' imagination went horrifically wild, picturing all of the terrible things that could have happened to her sister. "What if she—"

"Hey," Luke stopped her. He made a fist and knocked her on the top of the head with his knuckles, just to get her attention. "Where's _your_ helmet?"

"It was too hot so I took it off when we were waiting for you," Tess explained defensively, surprised that he would judge her for misplacing something when Leia might be hurt or worse. "Then we left there in such a hurry that I forgot to pick it up again."

"Well, maybe Leia had the same idea," Luke suggested, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Maybe she was here, took that hat off, then forgot to grab it again the next time she was on the move. This doesn't mean anything. At least not yet."

Suddenly, in her head, all she could see was Leia. She was fine at first, then suddenly a blaster bolt hit her in the upper arm and she recoiled in pain.

Tess grabbed her own arm, getting a prickly feeling in the exact spot that she just imagined Leia getting wounded. She looked up at Luke with tears in her eyes.

"We have to find her."

"I know…" Luke whispered, wrapping the teenager in a hug. "And we will."

Tess tried to calm down in Luke's arms, but all she could see was Leia in pain and it was driving her crazy.

"Luke!" came a familiar smugglers voice as he trudged in their direction. Tess and Luke broke the hug and made their way towards him.

The Jedi and his former apprentice pushed through stray branches to meet up with Han, Chewbacca, Threepio, and Artoo. At Han's feet was the wrecked speeder Tess had already seen. Luke looked down at it, biting back any possible conclusions given the evidence.

"There's two more wrecked speeders back there," Luke informed his friend. "And I found this."

Han's expression sunk as Luke threw him Leia's helmet. He turned it around in his hands longingly. Tess could hardly watch—Han was not the kind of person to get emotional so seeing him like this didn't make Tess feel any better. To make matters worse, Threepio—ever the bearer of bad news—announced that Artoo's sensors once again found no trace of Leia.

Han sighed sadly.

"I hope she's alright."

Suddenly, Chewie let out a growl of excitement. Tess wasn't an expert on the Wookie language but she did recognize that as something along the lines of 'Look, over there!'

Tess perked up and followed Chewbacca, as did the others.

"What?" Han called after his friend, growing impatient when the Wookie didn't answer. "What, Chewie?"

Trailing behind Chewie, Tess stopped when he did and found herself looking at a slab of meat handing from a tree limb. She groaned with frustration.

"Can't you think of something other than food right now?!" Tess snapped. She paced in the other direction while the others caught up to see what Chewie was looking at.

"Hey, I don't get it," Han said, staring at the dead animal with confusion. "Nah, its just a dead animal, Chewie." Tess took a seat against a tree a few paces away. She was feeling tears coming on and she didn't want any of them to see.

"Chewie, wait! Wait, don't!" Luke cried.

Suddenly, Tess looked up and her friends were swept together in a net and pulled far off the ground. Tess sprung to her feet and ran over to the suspended net. It was incredibly high—she wouldn't even be able to reach it if she was standing on Chewie's shoulders.

"What the—?! Are you guys okay?!" Tess called up.

"Great, Chewie," Han muttered. "Great. Always thinking with your stomach."

"We're fine, Tess!" Luke informed her from his cramped position in the net. "Han, can you reach my lightsaber?"

Tess looked down with a disappointed sigh, seeing Luke's weapon lying on the forest floor.

"No," she answered for the smuggler. "But I can."

A collective groan came from the net. As the only survivor of the trap, Tess looked around.

"There has to be some way to set it loose—or else what's the point of catching something?"

"Branch ornaments?" Han suggested.

Tess ignored him. She followed the rope from the peak of the net up to a thick tree branch, then followed the branch to the tree trunk. It was swallowed with vines and entwined with another tree—perfect for climbing. The fifteen-year-old rebel attached Luke's lightsaber to her belt and started to pull herself upwards.

"Whoa—Tess, wait," Luke interjected. Tess didn't stop climbing.

"Your sister is going to kill me if you fall and break your neck," added Han. The girl rolled her eyes.

"Well, we can't find my sister until I climb up there and cut you down," she pointed out.

The vines were incredibly convenient. They were so dense that there was always one to grab and ascend with, and so thick that they easily held her body weight.

Finally, Tess reached the long, thick branch that held the net. She could see the contraption it was connected to from where she was. Carefully, the girl steadied her feet on the trunk of a branch.

"Tess, be careful," Luke reminded her.

Nodding compliantly, Tess' eyes focused on her feet. She moved one in front of the other, her arms out at her sides to maintain her balance. Left foot, right foot, slowly, carefully… For Leia. Come on, for Leia.

All of a sudden, Tess saw Leia's face again. Leia's face—twisted in pain as a blaster bullet struck her in the arm. Tess' feet shook from under her, sending her falling to the branch and tumbling off it.

Cries of 'NO!' and her friends calling for her came from the net as Tess' arms flailed, reaching for something until her hand wrapped around a vine. It was partially attached to the branch with several thinner vines, but the thin ones snapped under Tess' weight and without their support the thick vine swung her into the trunk of the tree with a thud.

She put her hands out in front of her to brace for the impact, which was a good decision until she felt her fingers crack from the collision with the tree. Still, she miraculously managed to hang onto the vine.

Han, Luke, Chewbacca, and even the droids were overlapping each other as they called out to Tess, asking if she was alright or not. But through their cries she heard an odd sound—some sort of humming or maybe an animal making noises. They must have heard it, too, because they stopped talking to her and started looking down to see what was there.

Tess' eyes scanned through the leaves and vines on the forest floor, but she didn't need to look as hard as she thought. As if out of nowhere, several furry heads popped up. They were muttering in an alien language. One of them exposed a woven box-like cover on the ground. Only then did Tess see that there was another rope connected to the net, coming from the tree right across from hers. There must have been a release latch under the woven box cover because the net suddenly dropped and her friends fell to the ground. All Tess could do was watch from several metres up in the tree.

_Don't say anything, Tess, _echoed Luke's voice in her head. She looked down to see him meeting her eyes. He was communicating with her through the Force. _They don't know you're up there. You're safe now, so keep it that way._

Tess bit her lip nervously. The small aliens—which almost resembled tiny, cute versions of Wookies—now spoke in more of a chant.

"Ewoks…" Tess whispered to herself. She had read up on Endor before they arrived and she just connected their descriptions with the real thing.

Tess couldn't hear all of the conversation down there, but the Ewoks seemed to be bowing to Threepio. Before she knew it, the tiny, furry aliens were tying her friends to logs and carrying them off.

As soon as the Ewoks were nearly out of sight, Tess climbed down from the tree and raced after them.

She hoped with all her might that she would run into Leia on her way.


	36. Chapter 35 - Endor (4 ABY)

Tess lingered behind the Ewoks just enough so that they couldn't see her following. The cute little furry creatures trotted along, singing something in their alien language as they walked—it almost made Tess forget that they had her friends tied to sticks like animals. As much as she hated most of the other rebels, she wished they were here so it wouldn't be all up to her to save them like this.

The Ewoks lived in trees, where they had constructed various levels and ramps leading up to a camp high above the ground. Tess exhaled, looking up at the structure. There was no way she could get up the ramps undetected. Ramps were one-way—there was no place to duck and cover if she were to be spotted—and the last thing she needed right now was her own hands and feet tied to a long branch.

It became clear to Tess that her only choice was to find a place to climb—again. She looked down at her hand. Her knuckles were cracked and bleeding a little from where she rammed into the tree, but she had been focusing her energy on healing it as Luke had taught her and it felt much better. Nothing seemed to be broken.

Once the Ewoks were all at least three levels up on the ramps, Tess Naberrie began to scope out her tree of choice. She was hoping for one like the last—covered in vines that provided hand and foot hold in every direction.

After a few moments of searching which included disturbing piles of human remains, Tess managed to find a tree that was not quite a mess of vines but definitely had a climbable amount of branches. The only problem was that the first branch was incredibly high. At least, it was a problem until Tess remembered how to Force-jump. Being Force-grounded, she sometimes forgot she was special sometimes.

Tess' scratched-up fingers clung to the lowest branch. She carefully pulled herself up and then proceeded to the next branch. The higher she went, the denser the branches became. Searching for a branch was not a problem anymore, but ducking under them and climbing over them became a more time-consuming one.

Finally, Tess reached the level where her friends and most of the Ewoks were—with even more human remains than on ground level. She was pretty sure Ewoks didn't eat humans but she wasn't about to underestimate the alien creatures. She watched them, hidden by the branches of Endor's trees. If the hut-like structure she was next to had some sort of window, she could climb in, but she had no such luck. Once again, Tess nearly felt the need to smack herself in the forehead for forgetting what she had and what she could do.

Luke's lightsaber was still attached to her belt. Both excited and nervous, Tess ignited the lightsaber and plunged in right into the wall. She quickly carved a hole big enough to crawl through and pushed the wall in. Her crawl became more of a tumble when her foot caught on a branch and she rolled forward, knocking over a table-like structure with a rock on it.

Tess froze—hoping she didn't alert anyone to her presence. She could hear the festivities of her friends' capture going on outside. She hoped that was loud enough to muffle the noise she made.

The hut she was in was connected to two separate ones. The one on the left lead to a main deck where most of the Ewoks and her friends were as far as Tess' ears could tell, and the right seemed to lead to more huts and decks. She hoped the Ewoks hid her friends' weapons somewhere nearby, because Tess didn't really come up with a plan and blasters would definitely help get the attention of the human-eating fur balls.

Tess was halfway into a room when she heard something from the adjoining one. She held her breath. Was that a human voice? It sounded like it.

"Damn this thing…"

Tess recognized the voice immediately. It was Leia! As if their Force connection suddenly ignited, Leia dropped what appeared to be a busted comlink that she was working on. She turned her head and met eyes with Tess'.

"You're okay!" Tess exclaimed with relief, running forward to hug her sister. Leia hugged Tess back tightly, and then pulled away to look the girl over.

"Are you alright?" asked the princess. "How did you get separated from the squad?" Leia noticed her sister's hands and wrapped them in one of the cloths the Ewoks had given her to wash her face—she hadn't used that particular one so it was clean.

"We were looking for you," Tess explained. "Luke came back alone, and when you weren't with him and he saw that you hadn't come back first, we went out looking for you. With Chewie, Han, and the droids. The squad is going to meet us at the shield generator."

Tess couldn't help but notice her sister's change of clothes. Leia was wearing what appeared to be a long-sleeved white jumpsuit with under a brown short-sleeved dress, complete with matching lace-up boots. Her hair was even taken down from the crown of braids so that most of it fell loose around her back and shoulders, save a braid woven like a headband from one side to the other.

Leia noticed that Tess was looking at her outfit and looked down at it as well, shrugging slightly.

"They made it for me," she clarified. "At first I refused it, but they insisted and getting out of that filthy outfit I've been trekking around in for days was starting to sound like a really good idea."

"How exactly did you get to be so chummy with them, anyway?" Tess asked curiously. "With Han, Luke, Chewie and the droids, they—"

Suddenly, Tess was reminded that her friends were still in trouble. As if to clarify that, the sisters heard drums sounding from the platform they were being held on.

Tess raced in that direction, with Leia close behind her even though the latter of the two didn't fully understand what was going on until they emerged from the main hut.

Leia and Tess barely saw their friends tied to sticks before they were stopped by several Ewoks with spears.

"I thought you said they liked you?" Tess questioned her sister.

"They do!" Leia snapped. She looked down at her new Ewok friends in confusion, trying to understand them. They tried to grab Tess, but Leia pushed them away from her enough for the small aliens to understand that she was a friend of Leia's. Unfortunately, it was much harder to explain that with Han, Luke, Chewie, and the droids. "But these are my friends!" the princess tried to explicate.

"They think Threepio is their God or something," Tess added.

"What?" chuckled Leia. After realizing Tess was serious, she turned to the golden droid. "Threepio, tell them they must be set free!"

Despite their attempts and Threepio's, the Ewoks continued to pile sticks under their friends. They started a small fire under Han, who helplessly tried to blow it out.

Tess suddenly turned to Leia.

"Can I be un-grounded?" she asked quickly.

"What?" Leia asked, confused.

"I'm Force-grounded—I'm not allowed to use the Force anymore," Tess rushed. "For this particular emergency, can I be ungrounded?" Leia immediately nodded.

"Threepio!" Tess called to the droid. "Get them to look at me, then translate!"

The fifteen-year-old Force-jumped onto the roof to help get the Ewoks' attention. Threepio translated as Tess spoke.

"As we have been trying to explain to you, the golden man is not our god," she explicated. "But we _do_ have a god. A most powerful one. And he can be summoned with this device. This device shows our god's will." She pulled out the silver cylinder that formed the handle of her lightsaber, leaving it illuminated. "Perhaps we are not the ones to tell you to set our friends free—but he is."

At that, Tess threw her lightsaber up into the air as high as she could. Then, closing her eyes and concentrating harder than ever before, she felt herself grasp and illuminate the lightsaber. The green beam of light descended-blade first from the sky, slowly moving towards the deck they stood on. The Ewoks ran in fear, breaking away from their prisoners and some retreating to their huts.

The lightsaber lowered first to Luke. Tess' head hurt from concentration. Leia watched her sister intently from below the roof.

_You can do it, _Leia's voice told her from inside her head.

With careful precision and a bit of Luke's help, the blade of the lightsaber cut the ropes that bound Luke's feet. Next, it cut his hands. Luke Skywalker stood up unharmed and smiled proudly up at Tess.

Tess once again eyed the Ewoks that were still outside of the huts. The lightsaber hovered above Han as if pointing to him. Once again, Tess spoke and Threepio translated.

"I do believe my god is requesting that you free this one as has been done to the other," Tess suggested. Without hesitation, the Ewoks raced to set every single prisoner free.

Luke raced over to wrap Leia in a hug, and then helped Tess down from the roof just in time to see Han and the princess run into an embrace.

"That was phenomenal," Luke told his former Padawaan with a proud smile. "I was just going to float Threepio and hope that would make them think he was about to unleash his wrath, but if they actually expected him to do it I had nothing. But that—that was a _show_!"

"Wait, that was Tess?" Han blurted, making his way over to the two of them with Leia by his side. "I thought that was you, Luke!"

"You didn't help?" Tess questioned. Luke grinned.

"I was there if you would have needed it," he confessed. "But you didn't. That was all you."


	37. Chapter 36 - Endor (4 ABY)

Tess watched her feet sway back and forth, hanging lazily off an Ewok-made bridge. She could hear Threepio telling their new friends the stories of their travels across the galaxy in the nearby hut. The Ewoks listened fixedly as the golden droid used his programming to create the exact sounds of exploding ships and clashing lightsabers.

It seemed the Ewoks enjoyed making clothing for human females because even though Han and Luke were much dirtier and sweatier than both girls had been, the short, furry aliens felt compelled to make another dress for Tess. Threepio may have mentioned something about it being typical of Ewok culture to offer gifts to the women of a visiting party, but Tess wasn't really paying attention.

The fifteen-year-old reached out her palm. She dreamily floated her blue-green lightsaber above it, watching the reflection of the night stars play on the cool metal. She slowly guided the device through the air and traced her name with it—a control exercise Luke used to make her do. Once that became tiresome enough, she ignited the lightsaber and started carving her name into a nearby tree.

Sometime during the first couple characters of her last name, Tess' sister emerged from the Ewok hut and sat beside her. Leia just watched and said nothing.

"Getting tired of snuggling your smuggler?" Tess asked.

"Say that ten times fast," Leia joked. "And no Force powers."

Tess couldn't help but laugh.

"Not even the Force is that powerful," the younger sister chuckled. "Assuming it would help at all with tongue-twisters."

Leia shrugged. "I don't know…" she sighed, her shoulders lifting and falling. "That's your department and Luke's. I have no idea what the Force can and can't do."

Tess wondered where this was going, exactly. Sometimes Leia was as clear as day to her younger sister, and sometimes her intensions were so clouded that Tess questioned whether she could read the princess at all.

"So," Leia continued, meeting Tess' eyes. "I think I should get a better understanding of the Force before I decide whether its bad for you or not."

There was a time where hearing that from Leia would have sent Tess jumping out of her boots with joy—but this moment was not like that. Expecting quite the opposite of Tess; simple nod, Leia looked her sister over.

"What's the matter?" she asked with soft concern.

Such a good question. Tess had been asking herself that question all night. The Force was once a link to who she was—not being able to use it was like smothering her very identity. But now that she was a bit older, she saw just how remarkable she was for her age and experience. If Force-sensitives were as common as the natural shipmen and racers in pilot academies, the Empire wouldn't want her and Luke's heads on a stick.

"There's still so much that I don't know," Tess finally responded, exhaling through the words as if relieving some burden. Leia turned to face her.

"About what?" asked the princess.

"Me," Tess blurted, her eyes moving towards Leia's. "What am I?"

Leia froze. Her dark eyes widened like saucers as if caught in a lie, but she tried to hide it. She quickly changed her demeanor from guilty to comforting.

"What do you mean—what are you?" Leia uttered softly, tucking a hair behind Tess' ear. "You're my sister."

Tess gently moved Leia's hand away.

"Am I?" asked the fifteen-year-old with uncertainty, pulling herself to a stand. "You once told me that Padme Naberrie died eight years before I was born. Was that a lie?"

Tess could sense Leia's unease. She always knew that the princess kept secrets, but as this conversation started, Tess could feel that she had hit those confidences right between the eyes.

"No, that was not a lie."

The princess rose to her feet, reaching a height not much taller than Tess. The younger of the two felt tears well up behind her eyes.

"Then which is the lie?" she demanded. "They can't both be true! You can't say that our mother died before I was born and say that we're sisters!"

"Neither of them are lies!" Leia insister. She put a hand on each of Tess' shoulders as an attempt to calm her down. "Tess, there is still quite a bit that you don't know…but what you do know is all true."

"I have a right to know the rest!" Tess insisted angrily. "It's not a coincidence that I'm Force-sensitive, or that I'm your sister, or that Bail Organa kept me locked away close by like some big secret. And some if not all of those coincidences are the reason that the Empire is after me—but there's something else that is connecting all of these and you're not telling me what it is! What is it?!"

Leia just stood there looking down at her sister. She said nothing.

"What is it?!" Tess repeated. "What aren't you telling me?!"

"Tess, I can't—"

"Yes you can!" Tess cried, blue lightening flying from her fingertips and hitting the wood beneath her. The fifteen-year-old looked at the black scorch mark with confusion and fear, and then snapped back up at Leia for an explanation. Her expression softened a little as tears began to fall. "Was I born like this? Was this done to me? Sometimes I just can't control it," she sobbed. "There's this emptiness—almost a darkness, and…it seems like—I don't know…" Her voice trailed off. Tess took several deep breaths before continuing. "Was I born like this, or was it done to me? Did someone make me like this?"

Tess caught Leia in a moment of tensing up during her the last sentence.

"That's it," Tess muttered. "That's…someone made me like this. I can feel it now." Though one would imagine the certainty of an answer she had wanted for so long would be comforting, she dreaded that particular explanation. It all made so much sense now.

"That's not it," Leia interjected. "Not exactly. Please, Tess, just drop it! I won't do this now."

"Then when, Leia?!" Tess exclaimed. "Do I have to find out when Darth Vader drags me kicking and screaming to a torture room?—because he seems to know! And Chid Deltrod knew something—that was for sure! Wouldn't you rather I hear this from my sister?—assuming that wasn't just a lie." She paused, her chest heaving with anger as she caught her breath and stifled her sobs. "Or maybe," she muttered darkly. "You just can't bear to face whatever the hell your picture-perfect daddy got into to get stuck with me. Maybe Bail Organa wasn't so perfect!"

Suddenly, Tess was silenced by a slap to the face.

Just as quick as she gave Tess a hard strike to the cheek, Leia's hand retaliated back and clapped over her mouth in shock. The princess shook her head slowly, tears pouring from her eyes.

"Tess, I'm so—"

"Don't!" Tess screamed. Her chin quivered, absolutely livid. "I know he was perfect for you—but Leia, if he wanted to do what was best for me, he would have explained things a long time ago. You have no idea what its like—not knowing! Where my mind goes…the possibilities… I have no idea who I am or what I'm doing here or why because he didn't tell me!"

Leia's head fell forward with sobs. She attempted to stifle them with her hands. Whether she had a response or not, she was in no position to give one.

"But Leia…" Tess stated more calmly. "You can. Please. I know you have some idea of how and why I am standing here with you right now. Please, Leia, I need the truth. I need to know who I am—why I ended up here with you, Luke, and Han—why the Empire is interested in me…" Tess looked down at her fingers, which glowed blue from residual anger. "…why I can do what I do."

Leia just stared at Tess at first—expressionless. Then, she spun around and began walking towards the hut. Tess grabbed her arm.

"Where are you—?"

"I won't tell you," Leia snapped at her sister. Before the younger could retaliate, the princess held up a finger to pause her.

"I won't tell you," Leia reiterated evenly. "Because I have to show you."


	38. Chapter 37 - Endor (4 ABY)

Leia paced outside one of the Ewok huts, nervously picking at her fingernails. She heard Bail Organa's voice playing on the holoprojector, and within another minute or two Tess would no everything. Had she made the right choice? It pained her to go against her father's wishes, but Tess was older now and the circumstances were not what Bail expected. At the rate they were going, as much as Leia hated to imagine the Empire getting a hold of Tess again, hearing the truth from the wrong people was a very real possibility. Leia couldn't have that happen.

Just then, a warm presence calmed the princess.

"Leia?" said Luke, walking over to her and placing a hand on her shoulder. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Leia assured him quickly. She forgot that she could never fool this Jedi. Still, she wasn't up for explaining the Tess situation to Luke, so she pulled to a more westward deck where he couldn't hear Bail Organa's holocron message.

Ever the intuitive one, Luke seemed to understand that Tess was not a topic of conversation that Leia wanted to get into. Besides, Leia sensed something else on his mind.

"What is it?" the princess inquired. Luke smiled slightly.

"I do believe the last time you asked me that," the Jedi Knight reminded her. "I told you to ask me again sometime. I guess now is better than ever, huh?"

Leia readily welcomed the distraction from whether or not she was doing the right thing for Tess. Seeing he had her attention, Luke gained the courage to ask her a question.

"Leia…" he began. "Do you remember your mother? Your real mother?"

"Just a little bit," Leia said after a moment. She wasn't expecting that. "She died when I was very young." That was a bit of an understatement. Leia was told that Padme Naberrie died soon after childbirth. Still, somehow Leia remembered her mother.

The Jedi was surprisingly eager.

"What do you remember?"

"Just…images really," Leia told him. "Feelings." She could tell on Luke's face that he wanted more. The princess closed her eyes. She imagined the woman she often saw in her dreams ever since her adoptive mother died. "She was very beautiful," the young woman continued. "Kind. But…sad." The princess eyed Luke again. "Why are you asking me this?"

Luke sat down on the rail of the bridge, looking down.

"I have no memory of my mother," he confessed sadly. "I never knew her."

This was very unlike Luke. He rarely talked about the many friends and family they had lost—particularly during the past four years. Something was wrong.

"Luke, tell me," Leia insisted. "What's troubling you?"

"Vader's here," Luke informed her. "Now. On this moon."

Leia thought she heard him wrong at first. What did that have to do with anything?

"How do you know?" she asked, a chill running down her spine at the recollection of that dark mask that destroyed everything she had ever known.

"I felt his presence. He's come for me. He can feel when I'm here," he explained. "That's why I have to go. As long as I stay, I'm endangering the whole mission."

Leia knew better than to doubt Luke by now. If he said Darth Vader was here, then Vader was here.

"What about Tess?" Leia asked urgently. "Can he sense her?"

"I don't know," Luke said honestly. "All I know is that I have to face him."

"Why?" queried the princess.

Luke grew silent for a moment. Leia could feel a sort of darkness about him. Finally, he spoke.

"He's my father."

The air caught in Leia's throat. No. There was no way. Someone as kind and good as Luke could not possibly come from a cruel, heartless monster. Leia was speechless.

"There's more," Luke assured the princess—though she had hardly processed the last revelation. "It won't be easy for you to hear it, but you must. If I don't make it back, you and Tess are the only hope for the Alliance."

"Luke, don't talk that way," Leia interjected. "You and Tess have powers…I don't understand—and could never have. And Tess—if I have anything to say about it, she will never have to see Vader again."

Luke frowned. He obviously didn't want Tess in danger either. He decided to address her later comment first, since his Padawaan was a touchier and more difficult subject.

"You're wrong, Leia. You have that power, too," the Jedi promised Leia. "In time, you'll learn to use it as Tess and I have." Luke looked down in thought. "The Force is strong in my family. My father has it. I have it. And…my sisters have it."

Leia just stared at him. Her brain told her mouth to say that it was impossible—ridiculous—but somehow, in her heart, she knew that Luke was right. Their connection—it was a connection between siblings. Brother and sister. Like her connection with Tess, but just slightly different.

"Yes," Luke assured the princess as he saw that she understood. "It's you, Leia. You and Tess—you're my sisters."

"I know," Leia gasped, astounded at the revelation yet amazed that she hadn't seen it before. "Somehow…I've always known."

"Then you know why I have to face him," Luke assumed. "For you. And for Tess. He will come after you if I refuse."

"No!" Leia protested. She jumped to her feet. "Luke, run away! Far away! Take Tess with you if you have to—you can't face him! I wish I could go with you—"

"No you don't," Luke insisted, taking her hands. "You've always been strong."

Tears welled up in Leia's eyes.

"But why must you confront him?" she cried.

"Because there is good in him—I've felt it. He won't turn me over to the Emperor. I can save him. I can turn him back to the good side. I have to try."

Leia bit back tears. Luke gave her hands a comforting squeeze, then suddenly his sister's eyes widened.

"Oh no…" Leia gasped, shaking her head. "No…no…no…"

Luke could sense what conclusion she had just come to.

"Yes," he said softly. "Darth Vader is your father, too."

"No!" Leia snapped. "Darth Vader tortured me, tortured Tess, and destroyed my home planet! He _killed _my father!" She shook her head furiously. "No, Luke. Maybe it's easier for you because you just had an Uncle, but Bail Organa was my father! I loved him more than anything else in the world—and Vader killed him!"

Luke allowed Leia to vent, standing silently.

"And Tess?" Leia inquired. "Is he her father, too?"

"I don't know," Luke answered honestly.

"But what are the chances that our half-sister's father was also a Jedi?"

Luke shrugged.

"Maybe our mother was sensitive, but I honestly don't know," Luke answered honestly. After a moment, a slight smile reached his lips. "Padme Naberrie…I wish I remembered her like you did."

Before long, it became clear that it was time for Luke to go. Leia did not want to let go of his hands. Luke did not seem to want to leave either, but he knew he had to. The Jedi leaned forward and kissed his sister on the cheek. After another warm smile, he turned away.

Luke disappeared in the blue night fog of the Endor treetops.


	39. Chapter 38 - Endor (4 ABY)

_"Good morning, Inny," Tess sang as she untucked her long, dark hair from the collar of her tunic and sat at the table where her breakfast was already in place. Inny turned around to smile at Tess, her beautiful green eyes shining beneath the slight crinkles of age around them._

_"Good morning, Tessie," Inny returned. She crossed the kitchen to give the child a kiss on the head before pulling the long brunette locks together for a braid. Tess winced at the few times her guardian pulled a little bit too tight. Finally, she felt her guardian finished braiding and looked up at Inny with a smile._

_Only Inny's face was replaced by a black figure. Tess' gasp was silenced with a hand over her mouth. Suddenly, the room around her seemed to disappear. There were no walls, ceilings, or floors—no sky and no sense of how long the vast expansion of white could have stretched._

_"Hello, experiment," came a harsh male whisper. He slowly moved his hand away from her mouth._

_"Who are you?" Tess quivered. The stranger responded by grabbing her head from either side and forcing her to look forward._

_There was a table there now. Hardly noticeable, as its white color matched the entire room. The figure on top of it was even less noticeable at first glance. It was a woman. She was lying down, her dark brown curls falling around her shoulders. Her small frame was wrapped in a white silk gown, and her hands poked out of the sleeves to cross over her sternum._

_Tess heard a short laugh from the stranger._

_"The real question is," he chuckled. "Who are you?"_

_At that, another figure appeared. It stood behind the dead woman in white with a metal cylinder in hand. The device ignited into a blood red lightsaber, and slowly the blurred figure became a person in a black cloak. The person pulled back their hood._

_Tess looked into her own face. The cloaked version of herself gave a sadistic smirk, then brought the lightsaber down onto the dead woman on the table._

"NO!" Tess screamed. Her arms flailed as she recovered from a sudden falling sensation, eventually remembering that she was in one of the Ewok huts.

The girl rubbed her eyes and allowed them to adjust. Four empty sleep sacks lay beside her, unused. Tess pulled herself to a stand. She had purposefully gone to bed early so that Leia would not try to get her to talk about the holoprojector message that revealed how Tess came to be, but it couldn't have been so early that the other still had not gone to bed. Only the droids were in the room, powered down for the night.

Suddenly, Leia darted around the corner, almost making Tess grab her lightsaber in surprise.

"Are you alright?!" Leia demanded.

Tess raised an eyebrow at her sister. Sometimes Leia was eerily intuitive.

"It was just a bad dream," Tess explained quickly. "It was nothing."

Tess returned to their hut and sat on her small mess of blankets. Leia lingered in the doorway for a moment, eying her sister as if to make sure it was safe to come in.

"Tess, about the holop—"

"Leia?" Tess interrupted. "Please…I can't talk about that. Not right now."

Leia nodded slowly, taking a step back as if debating whether to stay or leave. Tess knew that they really did need to talk about this together, but right now she was too afraid of how she felt with this newfound information at this point. The anger—the fear. She could feel electricity pulsing down her arms as if daring her to spurt Force lightening at the next person she saw. It terrified her. She wished Luke was nearby to meditate with her and maybe calm her down.

"Where's Luke?" inquired the younger of the two. Leia took that as an invitation to join her in their small temporary residence.

"He…he's not here…" Leia explained slowly.

"He went to face Vader?" Tess guessed, her face growing worried.

"How did you know?" Leia asked her with confusion.

"I…" Tess thought for a moment, then shrugged. "I don't know. Luke…I've sensed that he wanted to do that for a long time. Every time he heard Vader's name I could feel that he needed to." Tess' eyebrows furrowed as she tried to explain her complicated Master. "At first it was a sort of vengeance, but lately it's more of a resolve. I think it was something Master Yoda told him that he had to do."

Leia tried to hide her worry.

"I hope he's careful," the princess added softly.


	40. Chapter 39 - Endor (4 ABY)

A line of rebels trailing behind her, Tess once again found herself trekking through the grounds of Endor. She still had not processed the knowledge of how she came to be, and she was far from ready to talk about it. Right now she just wanted to disable the shield generator. War was simple—break the Empire down piece-by-piece, fast enough that they couldn't put those pieces back together.

The squad of rebels reached the coordinates of the shield generator and took cover behind rocks, overgrowth, and trees. Chewbacca—who practically looked like a tree himself—advanced forward and waved the others to follow once he saw that the coast was clear. Han, Leia, Tess, and Threepio met the Wookie at a fallen log to survey the area. The Ewok Leia had met earlier tagged along, too.

Tess saw a three-wing fighter lift off a small landing platform. They could also see a satellite—indicating the location of the control bunker.

"Don't worry," Han assured them. "Chewie and I have gotten into places far more heavily guarded than this."

The Ewok started chirping in his language. Threepio responded to him with what sounded like a question, and the Ewok said something else.

"What's he saying?" Leia asked.

Threepio perked up in excitement.

"He says there's a secret entrance on the other side of the ridge!"

* * *

After less walking than expected, the rebels arrived at where the secret entrance should have been, assuming the Ewok was right. Fortunately, he was. Unfortunately, four stormtroopers guarded the door.

"Oh no…" Leia sighed. Han shook his head.

"There goes our surprise attack."

"You really shouldn't give up so easily," Tess advised with a smirk. She lifted her hand, focused, and within moments one of the four speeders outside the control bunker raced away.

"Who was that?!" demanded one of the white suits.

"Must have been a rebel!"

"Stop him!"

"You stay here!"

"Hey, wait!"

Tess grinned proudly as three of the four stormtroopers hopped on speeders and sped after the nonexistent bike thief.

"Not bad—there's only one left," Han said with a rare dose of real, non-sarcastic praise. The former smuggler squeezed Tess' shoulder appreciatively, looking between her and Leia. "You guys ready to handle this?"

Leia narrowed her eyes at him.

"Are you, General?"

* * *

Watching out for twigs this time, Han tiptoed behind the lone stormtrooper that guarded the control bunker. He gave the armor a few taps on the shoulder, then raced to the other side of the building.

"Hey!" the trooper called out, chasing after Han. But of course, rather than a lone rebel, half the squad waited for him around the corner with blasters in hand. Tess was in front with her lightsaber drawn.

"Good morning!" she greeted him condescendingly. "You want to let us into that bunker?"

The stormtroopers were idiots, but even an idiot knew when he was outnumbered. The hostage trooper compliantly gave them the codes to the control bunker's back entrance.

The squad cautiously entered the bunker. Han lead the way, followed by Leia, Chewie, and Tess. The youngest rebel couldn't help but notice the emptiness of the bunker. Shouldn't it have been more guarded?

"I have a bad feeling about this," Tess expressed softly. Han gave her a look. His confidence was always a bit of a fault. Leia lingered back to walk alongside Tess.

"Just keep your eyes open," the princess advised. "Stay alert. We don't know how many of them are in the main control room, so we need to be ready."

Tess nodded, shaking away her intuitions.

The rebels were absolutely silent in the last stretch of hallway before the main control room. Han held up three fingers. Then two. Then one.

Then the door opened and the rebels began to flood the mass of Imperial officers in the control room.

"Alright!" Han yelled. The officers jumped to a stand, seeing the several blasters that pushed them away from the shield generator controls. "Alright, come on! Quickly, quickly!"

Tess was one of the first to jump onto a command station, followed by Leia.

"Han, hurry!" the princess reminded General Solo. "The fleet will be here any moment."

Tess let the adrenaline rush guide her fingers, looking at the command screens and trying to figure out how the shield generator worked—specifically how to disable it. Han had one of the hostage imperials throw him a charger.

Then suddenly, Tess felt something.

"More are coming," she blurted. Not sure if the others had heard, she grabbed Han's arm. "Han, more are coming!" The smuggler immediately surveyed the rebels they had brought inside.

"You two, guard that door!" he ordered. "And you guys on that one!"

Tess bit her lip in anxiety. She frantically looked around the room. Deep down she knew that guarding the doors was not going to be enough.

Suddenly, from every entrance into the command center, stormtroopers came flooding in. Tess would have jumped forward with an ignited lightsaber if Leia hadn't grabbed her. A shake of her head reminded the Jedi in training that her lightsaber was an immediate identifier. If Darth Vader had found out that Luke was training Tess, the lightsaber would be a dead giveaway of her identity. For now, Tess had to blend in with the rebels.

The stormtroopers and imperial officers lead the rebels out of the command bunker, each one disarmed with their hands on their head. Tess was the only one who still had a weapon, considering she had stuffed her lightsaber under the belt of her tunic. With every other rebel wielding the same bulky blaster, the imperials did not think to search them for any smaller, more discrete weapons.

Unfortunately, a lightsaber would not be much help in their situation. The other half of the rebel squad was also being held hostage outside the bunker, along with at least two hundred stormtroopers, twenty imperial officers, and a few walkers looking menacingly down at them from a several dozen metres above the ground.

"Hello!" came a voice in the distance. "I say—over there! Were you looking for me?" Tess immediately recognized it as Threepio's, but it took the group a moment to find the golden beacon of a droid standing amongst the trees.

"What the hell is he doing?!" Han muttered. Chewbacca growled at the droid.

"Wait, maybe…" Leia's voice trailed off. She exchanged glances with Tess.

Then suddenly, as a group of stormtroopers surrounded Threepio and Artoo, an Ewok howl broke the silence and several of the furry aliens emerged from the brush, attacking the troopers with their handmade weapons.

Han burst into laughter, and the rest of the rebels could have jumped for joy. An Ewok horn of some sort blared in the distance and before long, there was an army of 3-foot tall soldiers fighting on the side of the rebels.

Han flipped a soldier onto the ground, Leia snagged a blaster from a trooper and shot him with his own gun, and Tess swung her feet at an officer's knees to disable him before he shot one of the rebels in the back.

The battle of Endor had begun.


	41. Chapter 40 - Endor (4 ABY)

"Are you sure you got the right code?" Tess asked her sister, hearing the princess try to open the door for the third time. The fifteen-year-old had her lightsaber drawn, blocking incoming fire from Leia's side while Han shot down anyone who reached range in front of her.

"It was the right code, but they switched it up on us," Leia muttered with defeat. "Han, the code's changed. We need Artoo."

Still blasting incoming stormtroopers, Han used his free hand to give the princess the terminal.

"Artoo, where are you?" Leia called into the device, projecting her voice over the blaster fire. "We need you in the bunker right away!"

Han shook his head with a groan.

"Let's just hope the fighters can hold out a bit longer for the shield to come down."

As more troops seemed to be approaching from the east, Tess ran over to defend the opposite side of the entrance.

"Be careful!" Leia called after her.

"Got any big life-changing should-have-told-me-a-long-time-ago reveals this time around, sis?" Tess joked.

Leia just grinned at her sister, then began a visual scan for Artoo-Deetoo. Then, Tess saw the droids coming from her side.

"We're coming!" Threepio called out, a golden beacon of non-camouflage with an Artoo unit trailing behind him. Tess pointed Artoo in the direction of the bunker controls and the fearless little droid went to work. Han squatted at his side to cover him.

"Tess, help them over there!" Leia ordered her sister. Following Leia's nod in the right direction, Tess saw a small group of rebels with a growing squad of stormtroopers surrounding them. The teenager raced forward with lightsaber in hand.

"Hey, that's the kid!" cried the first trooper that saw her. "The Jedi kid!"

"Keen observation," Tess replied smugly. She waved the lightsaber at his chest and wounded him enough to immobilize. In a flurry of adrenaline, she deflected blaster fire and fended off the stormtroopers, allowing the rebels to slowly but surely get to a safer place.

Tess almost didn't notice one stormtrooper that had a rebel in a headlock. She quickly stabbed the blade of her lightsaber into his back and the soldier fell limp on the ground. Tess helped the rebel out from under his lifeless body.

"Are you alright?" she asked. A split second after her questioned, Tess realized who the rebel was. She met eyes with the frizzy-haired woman from the armory locker room—the one who initiated the idea of stuffing Tess in a locker. Clearly, the fellow rebel was just as surprised as her savior.

"Um…thank you," the woman said sincerely. "Really… I'm—"

"Now is not the time," Tess reminded her. Her combat boots carried her back towards the bunker entrance.

Suddenly, Tess saw a stormtrooper that Han and Leia couldn't have caught. He was far to close. But before Tess could do anything about it, he popped up from behind a fallen tree and blasted Artoo. The droid shook and sputtered electrical emissions, flying back to the opposite wall.

Tess leapt forward, her heart racing with anger that she hadn't acted sooner. She sliced off the stormtrooper's head with one clean swipe of the lightsaber.

Somehow, the enemy blaster fire seemed to be getting heavier while the number of white uniforms hiding in the overgrowth appeared to be decreasing. Tess returned to the bunker.

"Is there anything else we can do?" she asked Han, blocking two blasts in her direction.

"I guess I can hotwire this thing…" the former smuggler decided reluctantly.

"I'll cover you," Leia offered.

Then, as Leia knelt in front of Han, Tess saw it again. That horrifying image of Leia that she had seen in a flash—the sound of heavy blaster fire matching the sounds at the present moment.

"Leia…please be careful!" Tess called to her sister from the other side of the bunker entrance.

"I will!" the princess promised. "Tess, go back out again—with your lightsaber you can do more damage out there—but stay close!"

Tess saw the flash of her sister again, but she shook it off and reluctantly returned to their forest battlefield. She slashed stormtrooper after stormtrooper almost absent-mindedly. Her real focus was making sure Leia and Han were still all right.

Then, Tess' lungs tightened. Down at the fallen tree where the trooper who shot Artoo was taking cover, there were now two stormtroopers with blasters ready. She raced down the incline towards them.

"I think I got it…" Han announced from the bunker. "I got it!"

Still running towards the stormtroopers, Tess called out a warning to her friends. "Leia, Han, watch out!"

But Tess didn't get there in time.

"AHH!" Leia cried out, collapsing back into Han's legs.

"Leia!" Tess screamed.

With her sister wounded, Tess was only distracted for a moment—but that moment was enough to allow two troopers to rush up beside her. One grabbed her around the waist, and the other gripper the hand that held her lightsaber.

"Get the hell off me!" Tess spat, trying to wrestle out of the stormtrooper's grasp. An Ewok appeared from a bush and started to bash one of the troopers over the head until he was shot.

"Get her on the ground!" the stormtrooper gripping her hand ordered.

Tess felt one of them kick her legs, causing her knees to buckle and sending her sprawling to the ground. The weight of the stormtrooper falling on her chest knocked the wind out of her. Then some sort of device shocked her at the wrist, causing Tess' body to convulse. She cried out in shock and pain.

"Get her up!" an imperial officer ordered. "Don't you know who that is?! Get her up!"

As soon as the two stormtroopers pulled the disarmed teenager to her feet, the imperial officer took her off their hands and held a gun to Tess' head. She refused to comply at all, so he practically had to drag Tess towards the bunker. She was well aware that even though the gun was at her head, the entire Empire knew that she was wanted alive, not dead. Just like Luke.

The imperial officer reached the bunker with Tess.

"General Solo," he called out. "Princess Leia. I do believe I have something of yours.

Tess couldn't see Leia—Han had backed her into the corner for protection. But as soon as the princess could see the imperial officer holding Tess at gunpoint, she stumbled to her feet. Han kept her back.

"You get your hands off of her!" he demanded.

"Order your people to drop your weapons, General," the officer ordered.

The imperial officer restraining Tess handed his blaster to a trooper, who fulfilled the duty of keeping the blaster at the kid's temple. The officer needed two free hands to keep Tess from getting away. He wrapped one hand around her waist and both arms. His other hand grabbed her neck so tight that Tess could barely breathe, attempting to stop her persistent attempts to head-butt him.

Suddenly, the battle seemed to stop around them. Han motioned for the remaining rebels to drop their weapons and the imperial officer got his men to cease-fire.

_Tess, get down!_

With her Force-guided reflex, Tess ducked without even thinking. She had stopped fighting a few moments before so the officer's grip had loosened, allowing her to slip downward out of his grasp. She literally blinked and then both the officer restraining her and the stormtrooper with the gun to her head were on the forest floor.

Tess looked towards the bunker in amazement, seeing Leia's wounded arm had not affected her blaster accuracy. The princess grinned at her success and the teenage rebel stumbled forward towards the bunker. But the princess' face changed.

"Tess!" she screamed. "Tess watch out!"

And then Tess just saw black.

* * *

Leia's heart stopped as she watched Tess collapse lifelessly on the forest floor.

"No!" the princess screamed, tears of anger falling from her eyes. "You bastards! She's a kid! She's just a kid!"

An imperial officer nearby motioned for a stormtrooper to pick up Tess' limp body.

"The blaster was set to stun, Princess Leia," the officer informed them. "You and I both know that Lord Vader wants it alive."

"She is a person, dammit!" Han snapped. "She is a fifteen-year-old kid!"

Leia could not take her eyes off Tess' face, the girl's head hanging flaccidly off the stormtrooper's arm as he began to carry her away. The princess' blood began to boil with anger. Leia had promised herself and her sister that the Empire would never get their hands on Tess again.

Now, she watched stormtroopers carry off the helplessly unconscious fifteen-year-old and Leia felt the stab of guilt far more painful than any blaster wound.


	42. Chapter 41 - Death Star II (4 ABY)

Her head heavy and her hands twitching uncontrollably as a stun blast side-effect, Tess Naberrie opened her eyes. She winced as a pain shot up her back—probably from falling on the Endor ground after being stunned.

Tess' eyes began to adjust to the white lighting. She was surrounded by gray, and immediately she knew where she was. The Death Star.

Tess rolled over to sit up, but she painfully rolled onto a bulge in her pocket. Reaching in, she pulled out her lightsaber.

"What…?" she muttered to herself. Why wouldn't they take this? It seemed the stormtroopers were even dumber than she thought. Tess sure as hell wasn't about to endure the interrogator droid again, so she put the stormtroopers' stupidity to good use. Tess plunged her lightsaber into the cell door, pulling it down towards the ground. It only took about two minutes for her to cut herself out a door, and then another two to push the heavy durasteel rectangle out to give herself an opening.

Suddenly, Tess' knees buckled and her vision blurred.

_Clash! Clash! Clash!_

_Red and green light, cracking together angrily._

_A dark voice: "Fear. Anger. Hate."_

_A sadistic laugh in the background, surrounded by palpable darkness._

_Luke._

"Luke!" Tess cried out unintentionally. Waking from her vivid vision, she realized it had knocked her off her feet. She slowly recalled where she was and what she was doing. But now there was a new objective. Luke was here. And he was in trouble.

Tess emerged from her cell and checked down the hall for guards. No one. Again, Tess was thrown off by the lack of security. Something was not right. She didn't let the absence of guards make her overconfident.

Her lightsaber at her side, Tess' intuition told her to go right. She had not been on the Death Star since she was 11—four years ago—and this was not even the same Death Star since they blew up the first one. Still, Tess had a strong sense that she was going the right way. Not to get out, but to find Luke.

* * *

Though her instincts felt like they were doing their job, Tess couldn't help but look around and doubt it. She took a right, then a left, then an elevator, and now she found herself at a dead end somewhere in the northern hemisphere of the battle station.

A voice echoing throughout the area nearly gave the girl a heart attack.

"Cool-down cycle complete. All stations are advised to clear the firing area."

Tess caught her breath after the shock of the recorded voice. At first she feared it was coming from somewhere live, but then she processed that this part of the space station was deserted, so there would be no need. Everyone seemed to be out in ships or fighting on Endor. She deduced that the announcement was put on a schedule with whatever needed the cool-down cycle. Then the voice came on again.

"Commence primary ignition," it said robotically. "Test firing in five…four…three…two…one."

Tess half expected for something to blow up right then and there, but nothing happened.

"Generators, maybe?" Tess thought aloud, looking around for anything that resembled one. She recalled Mon Mothma's estimation that the _Death Star II_ would have at least 120 generators.

Tess had just walked through at least three rooms with machines that looked abandoned. Each of them were clearly factories and work rooms that were normally occupied, yet there was no one to be seen. Every door was unlocked, every force field arch disabled. Tess' guard was sky-high. She tried to relax her jittering nerves as she scanned the room, knowing there was something in here that she was missing. The feeling that she was getting closer to Luke kept her moving.

Tess found herself in the middle of the room, standing on a four-block section of the floor that almost looked like they could be four hatches—but they were huge. Tess tried her luck and pulled up on one of them. It didn't budge. Still, the more Tess tried, the more she knew that was where she needed to go.

Her face molded in resolve, the 15-year-old Jedi-in-training stepped back and held out her hands. She focused on the bottom left platform, pulling it upwards. It twitched. Tess winced as she focused harder, pulled stronger, but to no avail.

"Come on," Tess muttered with determination, switched tactics. She instead tried bending the platform down. "Come on…"

After about thirty seconds of Tess holding her breath and pushing the platform down with all of her might, she heard something give. The platform suddenly bent about a quarter of the way, and kept bending as Tess continued to push it down.

"Yes!" Tess exclaimed, not letting go of her efforts. She pushed the platform down until it was enough for her to get through.

"Cool-down cycle complete. All stations are advised to clear the firing area," came the voice again. This time Tess wasn't as startled.

With the grate-like platform bent to her satisfaction, Tess collapsed to her knees in exhaustion and pride. But she knew she couldn't rest long. She scooted over to the platform, taking care not to fall in before she knew what was below. Tess swung her head under the lid of the opening, looking from left to right at what appeared to be some sort of tunnel.

At the very end of the tunnel, a green light reflected off all of the durasteel surfaces, turning the entire tunnel green. The light was bright hexagon in the center, bulging from trapezoid-shaped edges.

"A laser tube," Tess deduced. She dropped herself down into it. The laser appeared to be disabled. Tess wished she had studied more about the _Death Star II _than she had with the _Death Star_. She knew the original _Death Star_'s laser tubes all lead to one large conductor that absorbed 64 separate lasers, creating the power that was needed to destroy Alderaan. She also knew that the Emperor's chambers—where Tess believed Luke was—were where the laser would emerge, so maybe following the lasers would get her there.

Tess dropped herself into the laser tube just in time for another announcement.

"Commence primary ignition."

Suddenly, Tess' eyes went wide. "Oh no…"

"Test firing in five…four…"

Tess' head darted from one side to the other. She needed to get out of the way!

"Three…"

A platform out of the firing area was just up ahead. Tess darted as fast as her feet could carry her.

"Two…"

Almost there!

"One."

Tess threw herself into the small area that caved away from the cylindrical hall just as a beam of green emerged from the tube, buzzing with electric sputters. Tess anxiously recalled how close together that first announcement of primary ignition commencement was to the second. This was going to be harder than she thought.


	43. Chapter 42 - Death Star II (4 ABY)

Luke Skywalker closed his eyes tight, trying to block any Force intrusions from his mind. He felt like a coward—hiding in a dark corner from none other than his own father—but he couldn't fight the presence of anger like he thought he could. He wasn't ready. How could he have even thought that he was ready for this?

The Jedi Knight heard Darth Vader's footsteps pacing around the room. He heard his mechanical breathing and the hum of his lightsaber.

"You cannot hide forever, Luke," Vader taunted, sounding farther away than Luke thought he was, giving him enough courage to reply.

"I will not fight."

"Give yourself to the Dark Side," the Sith continued. It is the only way you can save your friends.

_No it's not, _Luke told himself. He wouldn't let his mind be fooled. _No, it's not._

"Yes," Vader encouraged, likely knowing exactly what Luke was trying to convince himself of. "Your thoughts betray you."

_Leia. Tess. Han. _The names played over and over in his mind. He hoped thinking of them would help him resist the anger. The temptation of the Dark Side. _Leia. My twin sister. Leia. _

"Your feelings for them are strong," Vader observed, clearly reading Luke's thoughts like a book. "Especially for…"

_No._

"Sister."

_NO! _Luke scolded himself. He could almost feel Darth Vader grinning with satisfaction under his black mask. All this time he had hoped his father only knew about him, not Leia.

"So you have a twin sister," taunted the Sith. "Your feelings have now betrayed her, too. Obi-Wan was wise to hide her from me. Now his failure is complete. If you will not turn to the Dark Side, then perhaps she—"

Just as Luke was about to jump up in anger and attack his father, he heard a familiar shout, followed by a flood of an equally familiar Force presence.

"NO!"

Tess Naberrie suddenly bolted out of the darkness, blue-green lightsaber in hand. She smashed her lightsaber in Vader's direction. Vader expertly blocked the attack.

Luke jumped to his feet to come to Tess' aid. Before he could reach her, though, her lightsaber flew out of her hand. It shocked the Padawaan enough to give Vader the opportunity to grab her, restraining her with his free hand and holding his lightsaber at her neck with the other. Luke froze.

From the other side of the room, a cackle echoed off the curved walls. Vader, Luke, and Tess all turned towards one of the sets of stairs, where the Emperor slowly descended.

"Finally!" he chuckled, clapping his gray, wrinkled hands together. "The family reunites."

"Let her go," Luke begged, addressing the Emperor and not his father. "Please, she has nothing to do with this."

"I must confess that I disagree, young Jedi," Palpatine said, turning Tess' lightsaber around in his hands. His eerie grin was unfaltering and inherently evil.

"Family reunion?" Tess murmured from beneath the lightsaber at her neck. The heat of the weapon was beginning to burn her, no matter how far she recoiled into Vader's suit. Still, it distracted her from the shock of processing that Luke and Leia were twins—brother and sister.

Suddenly, the puzzle pieces merged themselves together in Tess' mind.

"On Bespin…" Tess began. "When you were recovering from your fight with Vader…you kept muttering about your father. And Vader." One look at Luke and Tess knew she was right.

"Yes, Lord Vader is young Skywalker's father," the Emperor confirmed. He waved at Vader, gesturing for his apprentice to lower the lightsaber from Tess' throat. "But there is also another family connection here, you see."

"It can't be with me," Tess snarled. "I'm just an experiment, remember?"

"Tess…" Luke warned.

"Your creation was far more…interesting than a simple experiment," Palpatine informed them. It was hard to tell, but Tess sensed that even Vader did not know where his master was going with this. "You might be curious why it was so easy for you to get here. It's because I made it that way. I've been expecting you, child. The Force has brought us all together on the day your friends all die for a purpose. What do you know of your creation, child?"

Tess looked at Luke for a moment, questioning whether she should tell the truth, lie, or keep quiet. Her master gave her a slight nod.

"I was created as a decoy to protect Princess Leia Organa," Tess explained. It seemed like she knew everything about her creation by now—she couldn't imagine what the Emperor could contribute to it. "The idea was that I was to be another child of Padme Naberrie. So if…Lord Vader ever sensed Leia, I would be used as a distraction. Assuming he could sense if someone was Padme's child. The artificial womb that I came to term in was supposed to speed up my growth to put me at the same age as Leia, but instead it took me eight years to come to term. Bail Organa then made sure I was—"

"Yes, yes, that's enough," the Emperor interrupted. He scanned Tess' expression. "I sense you have a question."

Tess gulped. Yes, she had a question, but she didn't know if she wanted the answer.

"You are curious about your connection to the Force," Palpatine reasoned with unnerving certainty.

"Is…" Tess took a deep breath before continuing. "Is Vader my father, too?"

Emperor Palpatine let out a long cackle, while the others just waited. Was that a yes? A no?

"Senator Organa was an imbecile," Palpatine spat, getting great enjoyment out of this entire situation. Vader still restrained Tess, and she could feel him tensing up. Was he really as unaware of this as Tess and Luke? "He thought he was being secretive, but I see everything in the galaxy. I knew about Organa's creation as soon as it was requested." Palpatine gave Vader a look, still sadistically grinning.

"And forgive me for telling you this only now, Lord Vader, but I've known about your twins' survival all along. I also knew that, should he ever discover his children, he would take them in as his apprentices use them to defeat me." The Emperor gave Tess a look that sent chills up her spine and down her arms. He stepped towards her and put a rough hand to her cheek.

"So I made my own apprentice. With the beauty of his former love… and the power greater than both of the Skywalker twins combined. From me."


	44. Chapter 43 - Death Star II (4 ABY)

Tess Naberrie couldn't feel anything. Her thoughts just disappeared. Everything seemed to go numb from pure shock.

As the Emperor touched Tess' cheek, Luke ignited his lightsaber and pointed the end at the man's chest.

"Get away from her," the Jedi warned. "I won't let you manipulate her like this."

"There is no need for manipulation, young Skywalker," Palpatine snickered. "She is my blood. She knows it to be true, just as you and I. Tess may be your half-sister, but the other part of her is a darkness that you could never even imagine. A darkness that will destroy you, and whatever rebel friends are left after today."

Tess, becoming more aware of what was going on as the numbness subsided, looked up at Darth Vader. She wished she could see his expression. He just stood there, silent. Tess once had an unbearable amount of hate for that black suit of a man, but now, standing beside the Emperor, she realized that he was nothing more than the apprentice of the man who she should truly fear. The man who was—oh, gods—her _father_.

"Now," the Emperor continued. It was as if he was plucking for a reaction from Vader. "Assuming you've learned your lesson, Lord Vader, you won't be needing this apprentice to help defeat me."

At that, Emperor Palpatine shot blue lightening from his fingers—a sight all too familiar to Tess—and sent the bolts to Luke. The Jedi was immediately flung to the ground, convulsing and screaming in pure agony. His entire body was illuminated with the lightening.

Again, Tess looked up at Darth Vader, her heart racing. Somehow, she expected him to do something.

"He's your son!" Tess reminded him. Still, Vader stood unmoving.

Seeing that he was not going to be any help, Tess immediately Force-snatched her lightsaber from the Emperor's robe. He hardly noticed, but Vader did. Finally moving, Darth Vader jumped in front of a lightsaber blow meant for the Emperor, blocking it with his own. Tess pushed against his sword, then powered through another strike. He pushed her to the south side of the room with his blows as they alternated between blocking and attacking each other. Vader's pure stature was enough to scare Tess into the best dueling she had ever done.

As Tess heard Luke scream out for his father to help him, she felt anger surge in her blood.

"You're the only one who can stop him!" Tess cried out. Vader ignored her, though he seemed to be striking less and blocking more.

Tess couldn't just stand here fighting Vader while Luke was dying, but it was her only choice. Anger fumed inside her as she attacked harder and harder, striking Darth Vader in the shoulder and pinning him up against the balcony overlooking a hundred-metre drop. She just kept striking and striking and striking...

Before she knew it, Tess was letting her anger take control. It wasn't until Vader was breathing heavily with his hand raised in surrender that Tess remembered her priorities. She didn't want to fight Vader, she wanted to save Luke. It wasn't Vader she wanted to kill-it was Emperor Palpatine. She wanted to kill him, yet at the same time, part of her wanted a father.

"Good! Now once Skywalker and his sister are dead, we will have no opposition," Palpatine grunted through his Force exertion. "You and I will rule the galaxy as father and daughter. As a family."

"I already have a family," Tess told him with resolve. "And its not you!"

At that, Tess pocketed her lightsaber and stepped in between the Emperor and Luke. Her hands outstretched, Tess didn't think. She just let the Force take over, taking the lightening from her fingertips and firing them straight at the Emperor's advances.

"You are no match for me, my child," Palpatine laughed. Tess ignored him. She pushed harder. The Emperor did not seem to expect that. "You are strong. More so than I realized," he admitted. Then suddenly, the lightning came at Tess all at once, sending her sprawling towards the black wall and crushing into it painfully. The Emperor cackled again.

"But I am stronger." Palpatine walked to the other side of the room where Tess crashed into the wall. "I hope I didn't hurt you too much, my dear." Something told Tess that he wasn't sincere about that. The girl pulled herself to a stand, wiping away the blood from her nose.

"If you think this will turn me," Tess sneered, surprising even herself. "You have been doing too many death sticks." She brought her lightsaber to her hand with the Force and turned it on, prepared for whatever the Emperor had coming, even if it would kill her.

"Oh, I know you need more…convincing," the Emperor assured her. He Force-threw a barely conscious Luke from the other side of the room, into the wall near them. "In the end, it is your choice, my child. Join me, or watch your brother die." His eyes flaring with pure evil, lightning once again sparked from Emperor Palpatine's fingers.

"Don't!" Luke screamed through the blasts of Force-lightening. "He'll…kill me…anyway—don't!"

Her heart and mind racing, Tess looked from the Emperor to Luke, her hands at each side of her head as if to keep it from spinning.

"Stop!" she screamed. "Please!"

Once again, Tess tried to jump in front and block the Emperor's Force lightening, but this time he was prepared for her. Her efforts were to no avail as he flung her against the wall, only distracting him from Luke for a second.

Tess stumbled to a stand. Darth Vader, his mechanical breathing sounding extremely labored, stumbled behind the Emperor as if to watch the show.

"Father, please!" Luke screamed at Vader. Tess watched him, near tears.

"Father, please! Stop!" Tess cried to Palpatine—like Luke, she had just a shred of hope that their connection as parent and child could turn her father. Maybe even help him.

Tess collapsed as her knees buckled from under her, her hopes buckling with them. Luke turned his head in her direction, fighting through the pain just long enough to assure her that it was alright. He didn't need to say that he loved her. She knew it, and he knew it, too.

Suddenly, the Emperor cried out. Tess looked up and saw Darth Vader hoist his master over his head, getting severely electrocuted by the Force lightening in the process. Vader heaved the old man over the balcony, sending Emperor Palpatine flying down hundreds of metres to his death.


	45. Chapter 44 - Death Star II (4 ABY)

The emergency horns blaring, Luke and Tess helped Darth Vader stumble forward in the direction of the escape pods. The stormtroopers that were missing when Tess was making her way to the Emperor's chamber were here now, all racing to get off the space station.

With Tess' short stature and Luke's weakness from the Force lightening, they had quite a difficult time helping the Emperor's former apprentice along. Regardless, he saved their lives. Neither of them even considered leaving him behind.

Tess had twisted her knee when the Emperor threw her into the wall, and as much as she powered through it, one wrong step sent her stumbling to the cold floor. Vader and Luke came with her. Tess held her throbbing knee as Luke caught his breath.

"Are you alright?" he asked his sister. Tess nodded and attempted to stand again. Luke grimaced, watching her try her best. He looked around for a moment, then stood up and dragged his father to a ship with a lowered ramp. The limp figure that was once Darth Vader collapsed exhaustedly on the ramp, his breathing getting more and more labored by the second. Luke pulled his father to a seated position and Tess scooted her way to his side.

"I can do it…" she assured him strongly. "I just need a minute."

"Luke…" Vader said. Tess watched Luke's face light up just a little, hearing his father say his name. "Help me take…this mask off…"

Tess exchanged glances with Luke.

"But you'll die," Luke reminded him.

"Nothing…" Vader heaved. "Can stop that now. Just for once…let me…look on you with my own eyes." He turned in Tess' general direction. "Both of you."

Tess felt tears well up, but she pushed them back. Luke slowly pulled off Darth Vader's helmet, then the mask, exposing the face of a man. He was not strong looking, or different. His face was scarred and burned and pale from the battle that put him in the very suit that he was known for. Still, under the mask, he was just a man. A man with the exact same blue eyes as Luke. A man named Anakin Skywalker.

Anakin looked up at Luke with a love Tess never could have imagined that Vader would possess. Then he looked at Tess, then back at Luke, then back at Tess again. Luke put a comforting hand on his father's shoulder.

"You look…just like her…" Anakin choked, smiling as much as he could. Tess felt a tear slip down her cheek. "Like your mother. Padme." He turned to his son. "And you…like me at your age. But good, like your mother. You both have the good…that I never had."

"Father, if there wasn't good in you," Luke assured Anakin. "We wouldn't be here right now."

Anakin smiled just slightly, as if to say thank you but still not believe it.

"Now…go, my son…" Anakin ordered. "Leave me."

"No, you're coming with me!" Luke told him. Tess nodded.

"You'll be alright," she assured him. "Just come with us. For Luke, and for Leia."

"I'll not leave you here, I've got to save you!" Luke added.

"You saved our lives," Tess chimed in. "Now we're going to save yours."

"You already…have…" Anakin managed to tell them. He turned to Tess. "Tess…you are not him. I can see through your heart…your intentions. He might have been your father, but there is no part of him in you." He smiled gently. "You're all Padme."

Tess stumbled into fits of sobs, covering her mouth to stifle them. Anakin looked at Luke next.

"Luke…you were right. You were right about me," he promised his son. His breathing grew shallower. "Tell your sister…you were right…"

Anakin Skywalker smiled softly at his son. Slowly, his eyes began to close. His head fell back against Luke's supporting hand that guided him onto his back.

"Father…?" Luke called out, as if Anakin was miles away. "I won't leave you!"

Anakin Skywalker's body was now completely limp, and the labored breathing had faded out into no breathing at all.

"Luke…he's gone," Tess sniffled, taking his hand and leaning against him a little.

His eyes still stuck on his father, Luke wrapped one arm around Tess. A few tears fell down his cheeks. Eventually he allowed himself to wrap his other arm around his sister, crying softly.

Tess' face was pressed up against Luke's chest and her eyes blinking through tears when she took one last look at Anakin Skywalker, only to see the he was gone. The suit was there, but his body was now one with the Force.


	46. Chapter 45 - Endor (4 ABY)

Tess Naberrie watched the warm orange flame flicker in front of Luke's face. She couldn't even imagine what he must be feeling. Especially since Anakin Skywalker redeemed himself in his final moments.

The empty black suit that was once the shell of Darth Vader sat on a pile of logs. It was hard to imagine that it was the very suit that used to strike fear throughout the galaxy—even in Luke and Tess. The death of such a person was not normally mourned.

"Are you alright?" Luke asked his sister softly.

"It's just…no one will ever know," she thought aloud. "No one will ever understand—no one saw what we saw."

"The world will celebrate the death of Darth Vader," Luke told her honestly. "But we'll mourn Anakin Skywalker."

Tess nodded slowly. Luke could sense something else was on his sister's mind. She confessed before he could ask.

"I don't know what's worse," she sighed. "Having your father die evil, or having your father die just as soon as he redeems himself from it."

Both knew there really was no answer to that question, so Luke lowered the torch into the pile of logs. In a way, this was a funeral for both of their fathers. Not as individual people, but with the flickering flames they seemed to watch their idealistic dreams of what it would be like to have a father burn away. Fireworks went off in the distance in celebration of the fall of the Empire. Luke gently took Tess' hand. She leaned into him, hugging him from the side as they both watched the black suit burn.

* * *

Leia watched the night sky light up with celebratory fireworks. She wondered how many other moons were lighting fireworks at the same time, for the same reason. The Ewoks danced around as happy as can be, and several of the rebels who helped fight the winning battle were showing up and reuniting with friends. Han—who had just embraced his friend Lando—noticed Leia sitting on the sidelines. He gave his friend a pat on the shoulder before going over to the princess.

"I thought you said you could feel that Tess and Luke weren't on the _Death Star _when it blew up?"

"I did," Leia assured him. "Just…it will be easier when I see them, you know?"

Han gave her a grin, then gestured behind her.

"Turn around."

Leia immediately stood up and spun around in the direction Han was pointing. They were a bit bruised, clearly exhausted, and seemed to be limping on both feet—but they were there. And they were alive.

Luke grinned from ear-to-ear at the sight of his twin sister, then nudged Tess forward, letting her have first dibs on hugs. Tess didn't even need the nudge. She raced to Leia, forgetting that her entire body ached, and her feet didn't stop pounding the wood walkway until she was in her sister's arms.

This entire time all of them had been worried about what to ask, how to ask it, and how to explain whatever the group went through while they were apart, but suddenly that didn't matter.

They were reunited again, and that was all they cared about.

* * *

Amidst the festivities, Tess realized that she had lost track of Luke. After a bit of searching, she discovered him leaning up against a tree away from the crowd.

Tess approached him, nudging him with her elbow playfully.

Then suddenly, Tess saw what Luke was looking at. There—standing right in front of them—were three blue, blurry forms of Master Yoda, Ben Kenobi, and someone else who looked strangely familiar. Tess looked up at Luke with astonishment.

"How…?"

"The Force," Luke said with a grin. "The greatest Jedi never die."

Tess took a stronger look at the man who she didn't recognize. He reminded her of Luke. Those eyes… Then, it clicked in Tess' mind. Luke said it before she could announce her own realization.

"My father was right. I do look like him when he was my age."

As Tess returned her glance to the Force spirits in front of her, another one appeared to the right of Ben. Tess clapped a hand over her mouth in shock.

"Inny…" Tess muttered, barely controlling her emotions. Luke looked at her.

"Your guardian?" he asked. Tess nodded.

There, standing _right there_—was Inny Foetl, Tess' former guardian and the closest thing Tess ever had to a mother. Tess never even knew Inny was a Jedi until the day she died trying to protect an 11-year-old Tess. Inny blew Tess a kiss, much like she always used to when she was alive.

"They'll always watch over us," Luke told Tess, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "Though between me, Leia, and Han I doubt you'll need anyone else watching over you."

Tess smiled and hugged her brother tightly.

Princess Leia, wanting in on the sibling love, made her way over to her brother and sister.

"What are you guys doing all the way over here?" she asked. The princess was not able to see the Force ghosts—at least not yet. According to legend and what Luke had told Tess, the ability to see a Force ghost depended on one's strength in the Force.

After one last look at their former masters and loved ones, Luke and Tess joined the rebels and Ewoks. Today was a celebration.

Today, the rebels won the war.

* * *

_**THE END**_

_**...of Part 1**_

* * *

_Dear Readers,_

_I would like to personally thank you for joining me in this amazing journey of my imagination. It all started with a dream I had._

_In my dream, I was the long-lost sister of Luke and Leia with a very similar explanation to the one in the story. Now, I'm a lucid dreamer, so I always know I am dreaming. But this time, I didn't. In fact, I considered the fact that I might be dreaming, then accepted the scenario as real. Everything I knew left me. I truly felt like a character of my own thrown into the Star Wars universe, having to figure out things from the other characters that everyone who has heard of Star Wars knows - like Luke being Leia's sister._

_I woke up from my dream wanting to go back. I missed my sister. Not my real-life younger sister (though she's cool, too!), but Leia, who I was just getting to know yet at the same time I felt this closeness to her. It sounds insane now that I'm not dreaming, but I believe it was our Force connection in the dream. I shouldn't have had Force abilities because I was conceived using Padme's egg and an anonymous sperm donor (well, if you've read the story you know it wasn't so anonymous), but dreams rarely make this much sense so reason was a little too much to expect. But that lead me to the huge plot-twist in the FanFiction version of the story. I wanted a shock as big as the "Luke, I am your father" moment was. At first, the Emperor just seemed far too weird, but then I realized that's what made it perfect. _

_So here, I took myself back to this world that my mind molded together while I slept in hope of recreating that Force connection. And not just between long-lost siblings, either. I became someone else in that dream - Tess Naberrie - someone who at this moment in time only I can understand. But I wanted to introduce you to her. I wanted you to feel this story as if you have made a Force connection with the characters just as strong as I did with Luke and Leia in my dream. Prominent new characters are not often seen in Star Wars FanFiction stories, but my alter-ego is just as real to me as Luke and Leia are, and hopefully my passion for this character made her just as real for you, too._

_Love,_

_The Real Tess_

_p.s. One-shot updates on what Tess and the gang are up to even after the Battle of Yavin are very possible!_


	47. Epilogue - Endor (4 ABY)

**_Epilogue_**

The Ewok huts nested in the treetops of Endor were all quiet—a drastic contrast from three standard hours ago. The Battle of Endor marked the greatest Alliance victory they had seen, and resulted in the death of the Empire's two strongest leaders. Though most every rebel knew deep down that they had surely not seen the last of people associated with the Empire's endeavors, today was not the day to think about that.

The celebration in the maze of Ewok-made platforms and walkways had hosted hundreds of rebel soldiers and pilots—many of whom were intoxicated. Now, most rebels were asleep, but Tess was not one of them.

The fifteen-year-old rebel pulled herself from her sleep sack. She tried not to disturb Leia and a few of the female soldiers who shared the hut with her. She tip-toed past them, careful not to step on anyone's hands or feet.

As Tess emerged from the hut, she heard a distant cry. At first, she thought it was an animal. Then as she approached the edge of the balcony, she saw a man a few levels down. He grasped onto the railing and, holding it for dear life, lurched his body forward in a fit of sobs. He then dropped to his knees, still holding onto the railing, and hung his head. Further down the platform Tess stood on, she saw that the source of a sniffing sound was a woman rocking back and forth in the fetal position.

Tess had almost forgotten that she was not the only one to have complicated feelings about the day's events. Though the Alliance had won, many rebel comrades were killed, both in this battle and the ones passed. Some rebels even had friends or family that were associated with the Empire and had perished with the _Death Star II_'s destruction.

The young rebel still did not know how she felt about all of this. She was grateful that her friends and her brother and sister had survived, but Tess' father was dead. Considering who he was, she wished she could be happy about it like everyone else. All the questions she had growing up now had their answers. So why didn't Tess feel the sort of closure one would expect?

Suddenly, Tess did a double-take at the sight of a familiar bluish form standing by the balcony. She beamed.

"Inny!" Tess exclaimed, mentally shushing herself before she woke the rebels who crashed in the Ewok village, along with the Ewoks themselves. She raced to her former guardian. "I was hoping I would see you again."

"I'm always here with you," assured the ghost of the older woman. "Even when you don't see me."

Tess sat on the edge of the balcony, and non-corporeal Inny sat beside her.

"Luke says Ben Kenobi visits him."

"A very strong Jedi," Inny reflected. "I was a youngling when Anakin Skywalker was assigned to be his Padawaan. He was greatly admired."

"Did you meet him?"

"On several brief occasions. Yes."

Tess smiled. For a moment she allowed herself to believe that Anakin Skywalker was her father, like Luke and Leia. At least he redeemed himself before he died. Tess pondered asking Inny a question. She wasn't sure if she wanted to know the answer.

"What is it, dear?" Inny asked. Tess swallowed.

"Did you know of the Em—_my father_—back then?"

"I had heard of him," Tess' guardian shared. "He was more associated with the government than the Jedi Order. Until the purge, that is."

"When all the Jedi were killed?"

"Yes."

Tess hung her head. She recalled a piece of Anakin's last words.

"Before he died…" Tess stammered nervously. "Vader—Anakin—he said that there was no Palpatine in me. Just Padme." She looked up at the blue ghost expectantly.

"The battle between the Light Side and the Dark Side is constant," Inny sighed. "Even for the strongest Jedi. Just because you had some brushes with this struggle does not mean you are turning into the monster your father became."

Tess was silent for a moment, showing little emotion. She was hoping for a straight agreement.

"I feel like he is still here," she admitted darkly. "Taunting me. Tempting me." Tess brought a hand to her face as a shiver convulsed her body. "I can still feel his hand on my cheek." Tess looked up at Inny with wide eyes. "He won't let me forget that I came from him."

Inny looked at the child sympathetically. Tess wished she could rest her head in her guardian's lap and just be held by her—just this one time. But the girl pushed away the unrealistic wishes.

"Why did you come here?" Tess asked softly. Inny paused.

"I don't mean to alarm you," she said gently. "Only to express a word of caution. Tess…to tell you that this is over would be a lie. It is nowhere close. You will face harder trials to come—harder than you can even imagine now. And pain…" Inny grimaced as if she had seen something horrible. "Pain…and darkness. Your brother and sister will not be able to protect you forever. They may not be on your side forever. Your destinies may separate. Maybe not soon, but someday."

Tess just sat wide-eyed, praying the Force was playing tricks on her as she listened to the warning.

"Your struggles are not over," Inny repeated. "Thinking so will be a means to your end." Her form grew faint, then slowly faded out.

"This is just the beginning."

* * *

_This is only the end of Part 1! You guys aren't getting rid of Tess that easily. As Inny said, THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING!_

_Daughter of a Dead Woman is marked as complete because this individual section is complete. If you start reading the next part to the story, be forewarned that you may run into cliff hangers or long periods of writer's block from yours truly._


	48. Chapter 46 - Millennium Falcon (4 ABY)

_This chapter marks the beginning of_

_**Daughter of a Dead Woman: Spawn of the Emperor**_

_The second part to Tess Naberrie's story._

* * *

Leia Organa struggled with restraining her hair back in a braid crown using only one hand. Her other arm still hurt from the three-day-old blaster wound. She was too agitated to hear Han walk in. A familiar pair of hands reached Leia's waist and pulled her close. She felt Han's stubble at her neck and smiled slightly.

"You need to shave," she reminded him, dropping her hair in defeat. The princess turned to face the smuggler. "Looks like Tess is going to have to help me with my hair for the next couple of weeks." Han helped her loosen the braid she had started, letting her long hair fall around her back and shoulders.

"I like when you have some of it down," Han offered. Leia scoffed at the idea of having such long hair unrestrained. She handed him a hair fastener and turned around.

"Could you just tie it back for me?"

Han gently pulled Leia's hair towards the center of the back of her head, running his fingers from the roots to ends. He tied the bundle together and then moved his hands to her shoulders tenderly. Leia let him work out the stress in her shoulders, leaning into his hands as he kneaded out the tension.

She still couldn't allow herself to take their success at Endor as the end to all of their troubles, like the others seemed to do. It didn't help that she was suddenly a Skywalker with expectations completely different from those she had growing up. And Tess had not been the same since she found out the truth about her father. Han read her thoughts.

"What's on your mind?" he asked gently. Leia sighed.

"The future of the Alliance," the princess told him. "What we're going to do now that we suddenly don't have the Empire's power looming over us—at least not as heavily. Whether Imperials are still out there. What it means to be Force-sensitive. Whether I should mourn for the death of my biological father or celebrate for the death of the man who tortured me and destroyed everything I had in a matter of seconds. Whether I should be concerned or not that Tess hasn't been acting herself since she found out about her paternity." Leia stopped her rant before she started to cry, her eyes straight ahead. "I've got quite a bit on my mind."

Han looked at the princess with pity, holding her close and planting a kiss on her forehead. He gave her a reassuring half-smile.

"Once we get this shipoff the ground, even with light-speed it will still be at least a week before we reach Coruscant," he explained. He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "That's plenty of time to gather yourself, or do whatever you need to do. And really, just say the word if you want me to extend the trip, because I can do that. I love the Alliance and all but every time Mon Mothma gives one of her speeches I keep thinking she's looking at me like 'Why are you still here?'"

Leia gave Han a smile for trying.

"Thanks…" she whispered. However, the princess knew from years of experience that the thought-occupying worries she had only went away when replaced with two or three more.

* * *

Tess Naberrie felt her legs and bottom slowly lift of the cold ground of the _Falcon_ as the Force raised her a few inches. Luke sat in front of her doing the same, having taken her hands in his so they could share their strength to heal. Both were still a bit sore from their encounter with the Emperor and Vader on the _Death Star II_, and Luke wanted to rejuvenate before his long trip to Tatooine in his X-Wing where he planned to do some self-training at Ben's old house.

Tess tried to have calm thoughts, but the past three days it had been quite hard to do so. Instead of letting her own thoughts go to discouraged places, she probed her brother's mind and tried to share his peacefulness. The younger of the two wondered if Luke would find her methods clever and creative, or invasive.

Luke opened one eye to peek at Tess. He frowned and let himself descend. Tess did the same—a bit less gently. She relaxed once back on the ground, leaning on her hands.

"What did I do wrong?" she questioned with exasperation.

"You just seemed distracted is all," Luke assumed. Tess just nodded. He appeared to be coddling her a bit—watching what he said to make sure it wasn't too harsh. A part of Tess wondered if he secretly feared her now that he knew who her father was. She felt suddenly violated by Luke's intrusion into her mind and feelings. "You've been having nightmares," he read.

"So what if I am?" Tess shot back, springing to her feet. In attempt to ignore her brother at least for a moment, the teenager crossed the room to Artoo and started rubbing little smudges off him. "I'm dealing with it, okay?" Tess didn't hear Luke make any attempts to approach her. Instead, she heard him walk out of the room.

"Artoo," he called. The droid beeped a goodbye to Tess and rolled out, following his master.

Tess was definitely not used to that. Usually Luke would push and push until she told him the detailed truth. Again, she worried if he thought differently of her now because of the Emperor.

Suddenly, Tess sprang to her feet and ran after her brother.

"Luke, wait!" she called, catching up to him. He turned around and eyed her curiously. "What, you think I was going to let you leave without saying goodbye?"

Luke grinned at his sister, pulling her into a hug. Tess hugged him back tightly. It made so much more sense for her to go with him and train, but that was never a verbalized option. She suspected Leia was the reason for that, but Tess didn't blame her. She herself wouldn't be able to choose between going with Luke or staying with Leia for such an extended period of time. Being away from either of them left a missing piece inside of her.

"Leia needs you right now," Luke reminded Tess, as if reading her thoughts once again. "And whether you realize it or not, you need her."

"We need _you_," Tess corrected, brushing away a tear.

Luke didn't have a response to that. He seemed to know the connection between the three of them was a strong one and separation was difficult, but he also knew that Leia and Tess were both struggling and he couldn't help them until he prepared himself to do so. Tess wished that didn't have to happen as far away as Tatooine.

* * *

Having left Leia to have some alone time, Han heard Chewie groan in Shriiwook from the cockpit.

"Quiet, Chewbacca, I cannot hear," Threepio scolded the Wookie. Han took the pilot seat and listened to the holonet news message that had the others so transfixed. He recognized the voice as Mon Mothma's.

"…with the destruction of the second _Death Star_. So far, reports of Imperials in hiding have been very few. Most planets have taken things into their own hands. We have word that at least five planets have been discovered publically executing Imperial officers and supporters who managed to escape the second _Death Star _before its destruction. Though this is good news for some, I can't help but doubt this was the proper course of action. Actions like this sound more like the handiwork of the Empire we once feared. The Rebel Alliance had a victory, yes, but let's not forget the kind of galaxy they were fighting for."

Han grimaced. Suddenly, Leia's doubt in the utopian outcome of the Endor victory was starting to make sense.

* * *

Leia brought a hand to her weary head just in time for her brother to see her stress. He thought it was hard before to ignore her pain that he felt to palpably, but now that she knew of their connection it seemed even stronger. The Jedi Knight knocked on the doorway.

"Can I come in?" he asked gently. As if she knew he was there the whole time, Leia waved him in as he was asking the question. She pulled her nerves together and stood to face Luke expectantly. He took a few steps closer to her. "I'm heading out."

The princess nodded, knowing this was coming. It still seemed to hurt her though.

"I just…its always hard when you leave for so long," Leia admitted in a rare moment of showing weakness. She sighed. "I guess I thought we'd have more time to…you know…talk about…"

"Our father?"

Leia grimaced. She couldn't call him that out loud yet.

"My father was Bail Organa," Leia said coldly. Luke nodded, averting her eyes. The princess changed the subject. "Is it really okay for Tess to have such a big gap in her training, though? Especially after what she just went through?"

"All I know is that I need to prepare myself better as a master," he told his sister. "So I can train her." He paused. "And…eventually you."

Leia's heartbeat stopped. The idea of becoming anything remotely close to what Darth Vader was terrified her. She wasn't like Luke—he could control his emotions like no one she'd seen. Even if she did train herself in the Force, how could she suppress the fear and anger she held inside? She listened to Luke and Tess long enough to know that those emotions lead to the Dark Side.

Sensing he had struck a nerve, Luke changed the subject.

"Tess…seemed upset," he offered. Maybe not the best topic—but of course he didn't realize that until after he said it. Fortunately, Leia welcomed the segue.

"She thinks you're afraid of her."

"I am."

Leia's mind did a double take. Her eyes snapped towards Luke.

"Did you really just say that?"

"That's why I'm going," Luke explained. "I knew Tess was special, but now that I know why, keeping her away from the Dark Side is a task even I'm not ready for."

"So you're leaving her?!" Leia fumed. "Yeah, great tactic!"

"No," Luke assured her calmly. "I need to meditate. Prepare myself for the task ahead. You might not understand, but its what I have to do."

Leia rolled her eyes and turned away. She could hear Luke take a few steps towards the door, then think better of it and move forward again.

"I…um…is there any chance I could not leave without you mad at me?" he asked. His Jedi manner seemed to disappear and little boy Luke emerged for the first time in a while.

Ever the stubborn one, Leia took a few more seconds before she faced her brother and hugged him.

"Be careful," she told Luke. She felt him give her a kiss on the forehead.

"I will."


	49. Chapter 47 - Millennium Falcon (4 ABY)

Tess wandered absent-mindedly around the _Millennium Falcon_. If she didn't know that everyone was on the ship at takeoff, she would say it was completely deserted. It seemed off that things would be this quiet in the middle of the day—and especially that the kitchen looked suspiciously undisturbed.

Tess turned into the small hallway leading to most of the bunks and peered into the one Han and Leia usually shared. The lights were still of in there, but Tess could see Leia's long, dark ringlets of hair hanging over the side of the bed. Han had likely gone to the cockpit already, having left a crumped heap of sheets beside the princess.

The fifteen-year-old walked quietly into the room and crawled onto the bed to lie at her sister's side.

"What are you doing?" muttered Leia groggily, opening one eye. Tess grinned.

"Good afternoon, beautiful," she sang. "Planning on getting up at all today?"

Leia responded by closing her eyes to fall back asleep. Tess didn't blame her for being so tired. Leia was quite the insomniac, especially during the days leading up to a big battle, so one would expect the princess to sleep the day away at the first change she got following said battle.

The _Falcon _had lifted off the ground late afternoon the day before and the group aboard—Han, Chewie, Tess, Leia, and Threepio—were not in as high spirits as one would expect after such a victory. Luke's departure probably had a lot to do with it. He always left just as soon as the others had gotten used to him being back in the game.

And worst of all, this time Tess knew she was somehow the reason Luke left.

* * *

Han Solo rubbed the bridge of his nose. His many years of literally staring off into space for days and even months at a time had made him a tad farsighted and given him occasional headaches. The smuggler did a double take at the time on the dashboard. How the hell was it already 1300 hours? A growl from his stomach assured him that the time must have been right.

With joints more sore than he cared to admit, Han heaved himself out of the pilot seat and walked past a snoring Chewbacca into the main corridor. He heard the familiar clashes of a lightsaber blocking a remote-fired blaster shot. The smuggler frowned slightly, thinking it was Luke for a split second and missing his friend. He found Tess in the main hold of the _Falcon_, battling the remote as expected.

Tess looked different today, Han noticed. Customarily she wore colored jumpsuits, but today she was in a white one with gray boots. A few inches of height and it could have been Leia under the helmet's blast shields.

Han observed the training teenager, watching her blue-green lightsaber dart back and forth, blocking high and low attacks. Was her blade shorter than Luke's, or was it Tess' height that made it appear that way? Han leaned up against the doorframe with a slight smile. Who would have thought the kid that smuggled herself away in this very ship almost five years ago would become this? He had spent hours of his life mulling over explanations for the preposterously unbelievable coincidence of a princess being rescued by a farm boy who turns out to be her brother, and escaping with a surprise stowaway who just happens to be their half-sister. It was enough to convince even the most skeptic smuggler that there was something at work here.

Han would never admit it, but occasionally when Luke or Tess would use the Force, he felt virtually inconsequential. They seemed to have their own little world that they would often escape to, and come back with the ability to do things he couldn't—and save people that he didn't have the power to. Han made it clear in the beginning that he didn't believe in the Force, but the years with Luke and Tess had definitely changed his mind. He secretly dreaded a day when they would realize that they were destined for far superior things than a smuggler's ship.

And now, watching Tess battle the remote, he realized that now he would be having those same fears about Leia.

Lost in thoughts, he didn't notice the young rebel growing more frustrated. The device hadn't hit her once, yet she started responding aggressively. Still blocking with one hand, Tess turned up the difficulty level to the highest setting. Han's eyes widened, but not wanting to distract her, he just watched as she continued to block each and every blaster shot. Then suddenly, she pushed her hand outwards with a yell and the remote went flying into the wall. But she didn't stop there. Still blind from the helmet's blast shields, she stomped over to the damaged remote, lifted it into the air with the Force, and sliced it in half with her lightsaber. She then reached out two hands, each electrocuting the two separate pieces of the remote.

Finally done, Tess tore of her helmet and tossed it to the ground, only to notice Han standing there. Her mouth agape and eyes wide, she tried a mumbled explanation, pointing between her lightsaber and the remote and the helmet, but she eventually gave up. It was hard to believe such remorse and anxiety could come from someone who moments killed a harmless training remote.

"Please don't tell Leia," Tess begged, darting to the mess. "I'll clean it up, I promise!" She started picking up the two pieces of remote, but the first one shocked her with the remaining electricity it had in it. "Kriff!" she recoiled angrily, jumping back.

"I didn't realize your vocabulary had expanded," Han mused. He wanted to just wipe what he just saw from his memory, but he just couldn't. "What was…what happened there?"

"Nothing," Tess promised quickly. Her face was reddening as if she was holding back tears. She picked up the remote pieces with a cloth and threw them in the garbage.

"Really?" Han narrowed his eyes. "Because I've watched Luke train with those things for four years and I've never seen him anything like that."

"We're different people, okay!" Tess spat, stomping over to him. "We may be related, and we're both Force sensitive, but I use the Force a completely different way! I'm…with some things I'm…I do them…" As she struggled for an alternate way to say what she wanted to say, Han just verbalized what she was implying.

"You're better than him?"

"Maybe I am," Tess sneered. "I can be stronger than him sometimes. His father may have been Darth Vader, but my father was Darth Vader's Master."

Han really did not like how the kid was starting to sound. He didn't know much about the Force, but he did know that anger was a huge no-no for Jedi and Tess was practically glowing red with it.

"Look," Han began, taking a defensive step back. She may have been a kid but she was a kid with a lightsaber, and she knew how to use it. "I was just worried about you, that's all."

"Because you're fucking my sister."

"Hey!" the smuggler snapped. That was it. This kid needed to be reminded who was in charge. Lightsaber or no lightsaber, Han grabbed Tess under the chin and forced her to look at him. "First of all, if you think after all of these years I only care about you because of your sister, you're dead wrong. Second of all, your sister cares about you more than anyone else in the world so there's no way in hell I'm letting you talk about her like that, regardless of our relationship. Third, I don't care if you think you're all powerful because you came from Emperor Wrinkles and hold a lightsaber—I can still give you a smack on the head for doing something stupid. Because this is my ship, kid."

At that, Han gave Tess the smack on the head he was talking about. Tess just stood there, wide-eyed.

Han spun around and left the room. He ran into a confused Leia on the way out.

"What was that about?" she asked. Han gestured towards the kid, who was now rubbing her head with a grimace on her face.

"Just reminding her that I care."


	50. Chapter 48 - Millennium Falcon (4 ABY)

A little-known fact about Han—Tess noticed—was that he could actually cook when he wanted to. The best part was that tonight would not be the usual nerf steak and ration bars. They had snagged some foodstuffs from the celebration on Endor so they were definitely going to be eating good tonight.

Han—the master of the meats—braised the Bruallki meat to perfection while Tess peeled the skin off some slimy yellow driblis fruit. They were a lot tastier than they looked. Suddenly, Han burnt his hand.

"Sithspawn!" he cursed, shaking his hand to cool it off.

"Yes?" Tess answered sweetly, flashing a naïve grin. Han narrowed his eyes at her for laughing at his pain. Finally, he got the joke and chuckled.

"Smells good," Leia complimented them, simultaneously announcing her presence. She slid lethargically into the booth they ate at. Four glasses of water were already set out. Leia took hers and sipped it.

Finished peeling, Tess brought the bowl of driblis fruit to the table. She couldn't help but notice that Leia looked absolutely terrible. Her skin was pale and so transparent that the veins in her forehead looked as though they were going to pop out. Despite the fact that she slept most of the day, dark circles had formed under her eyes. The princess had her head resting on her hand, looking like she was about to pass out.

"Are you alright?" Tess asked with concern.

"You look horrible," Chewie growled in Shriiwook, taking a seat across from Leia. The princess glared at him.

"Says the walking carpet."

"Alright, alright," Han intervened. "I very rarely cook stuff like this so let's not fight over who looks gross because we all know that everyone here was just living in a tree for a week."

Knowing Leia was claustrophobic even in situations as simple as sharing a booth, he had convinced her a long time ago that he preferred the inside seat so he would never have to make her feel uncomfortable. He waved her out so he could take his spot. Tess joined Chewbacca on the right side of the booth. Chewie was the first to inhale his Bruallki and the others followed suit.

Leia was the only one who did not seem so hungry. The others debated on asking her if she was alright again, but a woman who had the courage to insult a Wookie was not to be questioned.

The rest of the dinner continued in silence, only awkward when one of them stopped eating enough to make it awkward. Leia had barely touched her fruit and taken three bites of the meat before she excused herself.

Once she was out of earshot, Tess turned to Han.

"Is she sick?"

Han shrugged, unable to talk with a mouthful of Bruallki. He washed it down with water and swallowed.

"Aren't you supposed to know that through the Force?" Tess gave him a glare.

"Seriously." Han shrugged again, bigger this time.

"I'm not sure," he admitted. "She's just tired, I think. And I can't imagine she is taking the news of her biological father very well, to be honest." He gave Tess a look as if to say 'and if you haven't noticed, neither are you.'

Tess expected him to be more worried. He usually was when it came to anything Leia related. Han must have sensed Tess' lingering concern.

"Hey," he said, more gently this time. "Your sister has been through worse than this and I've seen her pull through it. As much as it kills me that she is so upset—" The emotion in his voice was palpable with those words. "—I know there's only so much she will let me do. Leia is the kind of person who likes to deal with pain on her own.

Tess was not that comforted. What she felt from Leia was more numb than depressed.

"I've never seen her like this," Tess whispered. Han gave her a reassuring look.

"That's because she normally doesn't want you to see her like this."

* * *

With Chewie manning—or Wookie-ing—the cockpit and Tess putting herself in a sort of time-out for murdering the remote earlier, Han washed the dishes in complete silence. He couldn't stop thinking about Tess' concerns, many of which were secretly his own, too.

After putting away the last dish, Han allowed himself to check on Leia. The light from the doorway illuminated the princess' face. She was muttering something. Beads of sweat rose on her forehead. Han quietly walked in and sat at Leia's side. He tenderly rubbed her back, trying to soothe her nightmare away.

Rather than calm her like it normally did, Leia woke up with a start.

"Don't!" she gasped mid-nightmare. Han recovered from his initial shock of her sudden consciousness and took the princess by the shoulders.

"It's okay," he assured her. "I'm here."

Leia's chin quivered with impending tears. Han leaned in to kiss her forehead.

"What was this one about?" he asked gently. Leia opened her mouth as if to form as response, but gave none. Instead, she lay back down and rolled over.

"I can't," she confessed softly, remorsefully. Han brushed her hair behind her ear and rubbed her shoulder.

"It's okay."

* * *

Han sat with Leia until she fell asleep. About a half-hour later he left the room and walked purposefully over to the cockpit. Once there, he found the nearest wall and punched it over and over until his knuckles bled.


	51. Chapter 49 - Millennium Falcon (4 ABY)

_Tess watched Luke's body convulse with blue lightening as he cried out._

_"Tess, please!" he screamed. Tess tried so hard to jump in between Luke and the cloaked torturer, but she was frozen still. The torturer looked up with an all too acquainted cackle._

_But the face was not what Tess expected. The face was a wrinkled, grotesque version of Tess herself…_

"NO!" Tess wailed, awakening from her nightmare. The first thing she noticed with her consciousness was a painful, constant, shock-like tingle in her fingers. She winced and pulled her hands out from under the covers.

The room suddenly lit up with an electric blue. Tess' heartbeat raced. Both of her hands shook with the jolts of Force lightening. It seemed like the power was coming from her, yet she couldn't make it stop. The realization only heightened her horror, which in turn made the lightening worse.

Tess leapt to her feet and raced to Leia's door. She raised a fist to knock on it, but as soon as her hand neared the metal, the lightening reflected back, throwing Tess to the ground.

Whimpering and wishing this was still part of the nightmare she just woke up from, Tess stumbled down the main corridor and into the empty cockpit. The lightening was starting to burn her, which she didn't even know was possible.

Tess scrambled into the pilot seat, bringing her knees to her chest. Her hands convulsed at the wrist so violently that she feared they would sprain themselves. With a short cry of pain, Tess clapped her hands together. She weaved her fingers and focused hard.

"Stop…" she ordered herself in a whisper. "Stop. Please, stop…"

Tess couldn't tell if the lightening spasms were getting better or worse. She could see burnt skin under the blue glow. It stopped hurting, but that was probably because the burns had numbed her. The smell of her own searing flesh made it all the more real. Tess tried to adjust her fingers, but somehow the skin now stuck together.

The fifteen-year-old broke into more sobs, dropping her head to her knees and keeping her hands at as much of a distance as possible.

"You're not him…" she murmured. "You're not him…you're not him…you're not him…"

Tess kept repeating those words to herself over and over again. The hard part believing them, but she tried.

All of a sudden, a series of sharp, crushing smacks between a fist and a nearby wall snapped Tess' head up. Across from her, a livid Han punched the wall. Dark red blood started trickling down to the floor. Tess was too surprised to say anything.

A sudden crack echoed through the cockpit and Han finally stepped back from the wall. He turned around. The smuggler nearly jumped a metre when he saw Tess sitting there.

"Kriffing sithspawn…" he gasped, catching his breath.

Tess bit her lip, wanting to keep her mouth shut, but she couldn't help laughing at the irony of someone saying 'sithspawn' around her. Han wasn't amused.

"You can't just sneak up on people like that!" Han snapped. "What the hell are you laughing at?!"

His obliviousness only made Tess laugh harder. Finally, Han caught on and managed a smile. Tess noted to herself that if this were to become a regular inside joke between them, they should probably keep it away from Leia. She wasn't likely to find it as humorous.

At that, Tess noticed that her lightening spasms had stopped, but they left nasty burns on both hands as a parting gift. Unfortunately, Han noticed, too.

"What…?" Han sat in the seat opposite the teenager and reached out to examine her hands. "How did you manage to do that?"

"Would you believe I Force-teleported to Mustafar?"

"Maybe," Han scoffed. "If Force-teleportation was actually a thing." As Han turned Tess' hands over to examine the damage, he was reminded of his own injuries. Tess winced. At least her burns were numb—Han looked like he was in quite a bit of pain.

"Can we just establish that this is mutual blackmail so neither one of us tells Leia?" Tess suggested hopefully.

"You got it, kid."

The two made their way into the kitchen, where Han grabbed a bowl of water and Tess found a medkit in the cupboard. Though it clearly hurt for Han to move his fingers, he insisted Tess get bandaged up first.

"Maybe she'll sleep all day again and she won't notice," suggested the current patient. Han nodded, wordlessly confessing that the same thought had crossed his mind. He carefully cleaned off her burns and wrapped a bandage from the medkit around each of Tess' fingers, then moved to her palm and wrist.

"So…why were you punching the wall?" Tess queried.

"Oh…" Han said in a low voice. He clearly felt stupid about it. "Your sister, she uh…she had another one of her nightmares, and…"

Tess nodded with understanding. She, Luke, and Han were the only people who knew how strong Leia was, and how painful it is to see her hurt. She had stayed solid for all of them so many times yet when she was the one in need, she would rarely let anyone in to help.

Clearly not wanting to think about that anymore, Han turned the question on Tess.

"Seriously though," he asked her, referring to her burns. "How did this happen?"

Tess tried to regulate her breathing. She didn't want it to happen again as she explained it.

"I don't know…" she muttered. "I mean…I just woke up, and my hands…"

"Were burned?" Han finished, finding that hard to believe. Tess shook her head. She wished that were the case.

"It was the lightening thing I can do," Tess explained to the best of her ability. "But I couldn't control it. It was going through my hands and I couldn't make it stop." Tess sniffed away any incoming temptations to cry.

"Kriff…" Han mumbled. "That sounds…terrifying." He finished bandaging Tess' left hand and motioned for her to hand him her right. "Does it normally hurt when you use it willingly?"

"If it does, I don't feel it," she confessed with more honesty than she expected of herself. "I can't feel much of anything physical when I tap into that…side."

Curious, Han raised an eyebrow.

"What _do _you feel?"

"Invincible."

Tess trembled as she said the word. It was in no way a good kind of invincibility. She couldn't explain it. Nothing felt good with the Dark Side of the Force and the powers that came with it.

When it became Tess' turn to wrap up Han's hand, she realized she couldn't yet feel her fingers. Instead, Han managed to wrap his own hands while Tess' sat under a frozen nerf steak.

Finally, both sets of hands were bandaged. Han grabbed a ration bar from the pantry, struggling with the packaging. Tess stood and crossed over to him.

"Thanks," she said simply.

"We're even," Han reminded her, holding up his bandaged hand.

"No," Tess clarified. "Not for that. For not treating me like a kid or a detonator."

Han raised an eyebrow, evidently unsure of what she meant exactly. Tess tried to clarify.

"You know. Leia treats me like I'm five years old, and even since I found out I was…well, sithspawn—literal sithspawn—Luke has been acting like I could turn around and kill him at any moment. But you just treat me like…a person, I guess. Normal."

Han smiled slightly.

"Well, you look pretty normal to me."

Tess grinned back at him and gave him a hug.

"Thank you," she said again. She felt Han hug her back.

"Anytime, kid."

* * *

Instead of waking up with the jolt of a nightmare, Leia surprised herself by waking with plain old discomfort. Or at least, it seemed like plain old discomfort until she awoke enough for the headache, the sweatiness, and the full-body ache set in. The princess suspected earlier that she might be getting sick—though it was hard to tell because she almost never did—but now she was sure of it. She rolled over.

"Han?" she whispered. He wasn't there. Suddenly, Leia was overcome with nausea. She pulled herself to a stand beside the bed, planning to cross the hall to the 'fresher.

Leia was only a step away from the door when the room began to spin. Dizziness drowned her and sent her collapsing into a heap on the floor.

* * *

_(Hope you enjoyed today's little marathon of chapters! I had been meaning to do some Han/Tess scenes in the previous part to the story but never got a chance besides the brief locker room thing. Hope you liked it! I'm done for the night.)_


	52. Chapter 50 - Millennium Falcon (4 ABY)

_There was a paragraph added to the end of the last chapter, so make sure you didn't miss it. Happy Chapter 50! If you haven't noticed already we got a nice long chapter here as things on the Falcon take a turn for the worse. It's not all adventures and jokes anymore with the group. Prepare for the night to get darker before it gets lighter, readers!_

* * *

Han Solo overextended his injured fingers with a yawn. After saying goodnight to Tess, he heard her door close down the hall. He didn't recognize just how exhausted he was until now.

Solo shuffled into the captain's quarters soundlessly, trying not to wake Leia. He inched forward, hunting for the bed. Suddenly, his foot ran into something. Han looked down, waiting with confusion as his eyes adjusted. His breath caught in his throat as he began to make out long ringlets of hair sprawled out over the figure on the ground.

"Leia!" Han gasped. He buckled to his knees and pulled her head into his lap. She was burning up—not a good sign. But she was breathing. Thank the gods, she was breathing. Just as he was about to call for Tess, the light came on and the kid dashed in.

"Leia?!" she shouted worriedly. She hadn't even reached the room yet and she knew something was wrong—through their Force connection, Han presumed. As soon as the fifteen-year-old saw her sister, she virtually collapsed on the back wall, eyes wide and mouth agape. "How… is she okay?" The tiny voice that came from her sounded to Han like the scared little girl who snuck onto the _Falcon _four years ago. But there was no time to comfort her.

"Tess, I need you to help me," he commanded, adopting a tone that signaled serious circumstances. "Go to the kitchen and get the medkit." Tess made no visible effort to move. "Tess!" She shook her head either in disbelief or refusal.

Seeing Tess was in shock, Han quickly snatched a pillow from the bed to place under Leia's head. He saw her sister slide down the wall to a seat on the floor, hugging her knees.

Han scrambled out of the room. He was back in seconds with a medpack. He set it on the nightstand, tucked his hands under Leia, and then lifted her to the bed. Adrenaline made the princess feel like a feather in his arms. The former smuggler heard Tess muttering to herself.

"I should have known… I could have sensed it… I could have stopped it… If I just—"

"Tess, shut up," Han snapped, hoping she understood what he meant. He just didn't want her to think like that—he didn't mean to imply that her feelings weren't important. But he also didn't have time to clarify. He ripped the scanner unit from the medpack and placed it on Leia's chest. The device blinked red with an expired battery notice on the screen and turned off. "Kriff!" Han cursed through his teeth. He pitched the scanner unit across the room. "Tess, go wake up Chewie," he ordered. He scrambled to the 'fresher and came back with a cloth soaked in cool water, lightly placing it on the princess' forehead.

Han didn't know what was more chilling—Leia looking so lifeless or Tess' thousand-metre stare.

"It's going to be okay…" he assured the girls and himself. Han turned his head towards the doorway. "Chewie! Get in here!" He once again rooted through the medpack and found a temperature scanner. After being used on Leia, it read 104 standard degrees.

A Wookie bark came from the doorway—Chewbacca asking what was going on.

"Something's wrong with the princess," Han explicated quickly. "Power up Threepio and find the nearest Alliance-friendly, Basic-speaking location with medical facilities. Preferably good ones." The Wookie didn't need to be told twice.

"Han…?" came a groggy voice. Han let himself exhale for what seemed like the first time in hours as Leia's eyes fluttered open. "What…? I'm…so tired…" Han kissed her forehead and squeezed her pale, clammy hand.

"You can go to sleep, sweetheart," he promised her. Han raced to get a cup of water from the bathroom and antibiotics from the medpack. They treated multiple ailments and didn't do any damage even if falsely prescribed so Han figured it was worth a try. "Take these first," Han instructed. "And drink some water." Leia did as she was told.

"I think I'm sick," Leia coughed. Han helped her lean forward so she didn't choke on the water. He couldn't help but smile a little. A bit of color returned to Leia now that she was awake and hydrated.

"Any idea what it might be?"

"The death of me," Leia grumbled. Han wasn't amused.

"We're stopping at the next possible place," he informed her. The fever burning away her logic, Leia tried to push herself up.

"No, we can't!" she pleaded. "We have to…the meeting on Coruscant!"

"Leia Organa, if you value my sanity, you will rest," Han told the princess sternly. He guided her back down to the pillow. Her eyes began to close sleepily, unable to fight the exhaustion once sleep was merely suggested.

"Tess…it's okay…" Leia whispered. Han had forgotten Tess was even in the room.

As Leia fell asleep, Han turned to Tess, who was still cowering in the corner with wide brown eyes. Her hands were clasped together tightly, the bandages from her earlier burns falling off.

Han inched over to Tess' small form, the look on her face enough to make him feel a mountain of guilt for snapping at her earlier. He knelt in front of her and slowly reached for her entwined hands. She stubbornly held them together at first.

"Tess, let me see," he asked in a whisper. Finally, Tess released her grasp and allowed Han to pull her hands apart.

Immediately, the smell of burnt flesh made Han gag. The bandages fell to either side of the young rebel, having been burned through. Pieces of the bandages appeared to have melted on the burnt-black palms of Tess' hands. Han winced, finding it hard to imagine how much pain she was in while he was busy tending to Leia.

"Do you think it's done?" the smuggler asked cautiously, gesturing towards her singed hands. As if on cue, an unexpected burst of Force lightening shot from palm-to-palm and Tess let out a startled cry. Fortunately, it was over just as soon as it started. Actually seeing one of her lightening spasms, Han realized just how much Tess was losing control—but he would throw himself into a Sarlaac pit before her let her do that.

"It's done," came a soft go-ahead from the fifteen-year-old.

As gently as possible, Han slipped one hand under Tess' knees and the other behind her back, lifting her off the floor and carrying her to the 'fresher.

"You Naberrie women are going to be the death of me…" he muttered jokingly, trying to calm Tess by softening the mood. He placed the girl on the closed toilet lid and washed his hands. The last thing she needed was an infection. Once satisfied, Han reached for the crisp black burns. "This is probably going to hurt," he warned her. "Don't electrocute me, if you can help it." He intended the last comment to be another joke, but as soon as it came out he realized it really wasn't.

Tess just nodded. With steady hands, Han began to peel back the pieces of fabric burnt into her hand, pulling off the top of a blister in the process and revealing a red, oozy wound.

Tess didn't even flinch.

* * *

"Captain Solo, we've found a—oh dear, Mistress Tess, are you hurt?"

"She's fine, Threepio. Stay in the captain's chambers and come let me know if the princess wakes up."

Tess heard their words almost as if she was underwater. There was this feeling inside her like a venom that killed her piece by piece. A darkness that her eyes refused to adjust to. A din that was more deafening than any scream. And each one of those sensations was trying to lure her away from herself. For the moment, Han and Chewie's voices were keeping her grounded.

"So it's Teyr, then?" Han's voice. "They speak Basic and have decent medics?"

Chewbacca growled an affirmative answer.

"When did I get in this chair?" Tess wondered. Suddenly realizing that Han was no longer carrying her. She was sitting in the passenger seat behind Chewie.

"When I put you there, kid."

She must have said it out loud. Slowly but surely, Tess regained her awareness. However, the sound of Luke's voice made her wonder if she was hallucinating.

"Let me talk to them," ordered her master. She saw his holographic form in Han's lap. The Corellian glanced back at Tess, who succeeded in meeting his eyes.

"Look, Han," Luke said sternly, losing patience. "You can't hide anything from me. . I know something has happened to her. And Tess…" Luke's face twisted in thought and confusion. "I can't even feel her." Tess gulped.

"Leia is sick, Luke," Han explained quickly. "We're landing on Teyr to get her to a medic. If you were here, you would do the exact same thing."

Tess swallowed again, suddenly realizing how dry her mouth was when she tried to speak. She tried again.

"Let me talk to him," she requested in a small voice.

Han looked from Luke to Tess, then back at Luke.

"I don't want you to upset her," Han warned with surprising hostility. "You've done enough of a number already teaching her all about this Force crap and then leaving her to deal with it on her own as soon as you smelled Palpatine."

"That's not fair," Luke retorted. Han passed the portable holocom back to Tess, almost as if ashamed of what he just said, but she wasn't sure. Han was hard to read.

"Are you alright?" her brother asked softly. Tess held back tears.

"I…I don't know," she whimpered. The fifteen-year-old brought her bandaged hands into view. "I…I keep telling myself I'm not like him, but…" She watched Luke's face change as he put the pieces together. "Is it supposed to…burn me?" She wanted to burst into sobs begging Luke to come home like a small child would to their mother or father.

Suddenly, Luke seemed distracted. Fearful.

"Let me talk to—no—" Luke's tone was grave and serious. "Tess, tell Han not to land. You _can't _land on Teyr, do you hear me? Anywhere else—"

Han snatched the portable holocom away and glared at Luke.

"Leia has such a high fever that she couldn't walk an inch without passing out. Tess feels so bad about it that the all-powerful Force of yours decides to electrocute her every time she does. So honestly, Luke, I don't Kriffing care what the Force is telling you. We need to land."

With that, Han punched the holocom off and turned to Chewie.

"Set course for Teyr."


	53. Chapter 51 - Teyr (4 ABY)

**_- - - - - Turos Noth on the Planet Teyr - - - - -_**

Tess Naberrie shrunk back up the Falcon's ramp as Han began to overdo the personification of his alias by barking orders at the hangar workers.

"Three hundred percent premium?!" he fumed. "Are you kidding me?! Do you know who I am?!"

"Sir, you could have landed at the orbital facility and taken a ferry down to—"

"My wife is sick with gods knows what—I don't have time for a kriffing ferry!" Tess watched Han root through his pockets for credits and shoveled them into the worker's hand. "Five hundred credits. I want this planet's best two hovercabs—one for my wife and I to get to the nearest medical facility and the other for my niece and her caregiver to get to a hotel."

Tess plucked at the white gloves she borrowed from Leia's footlocker, seriously hoping that her caregiver was going to be Chewbacca and not Threepio. The gloves would have been big on her if her hands weren't bandaged up so thickly. She looked down at her red jumpsuit and teal translucent vest that cascaded down to the height of her ankles, reminded of a similar outfit that she wore to Cloud City on Bespin. It had been quite a while since the group used aliases, but they always dressed as higher-class to get more respect and fewer questions.

Han eventually returned to the ship.

"He bought it," the Corellian announced. "We're going with the same married couple and adopted niece story that we used on the ore miners on Dorvalla. Now, your favorite part. What code names have you got up your sleeve, kid?"

"I wish I could just be Tess right now…" she confessed softly, avoiding Han's eyes as she continued to pick at her gloves. The couldn't feel the touch on her left hand. Not one bit.

"Hey," Han said gently, putting a hand on each of Tess' shoulders. "I know you're scared…but I need you to focus right now, okay?" Tess nodded slightly. "A hovercab is going to take you and Chewie to—"

"I want to stay with Leia," Tess interrupted, her already unbearable anxiety heightened at the thought of leaving her sister.

"Now, don't go all electric on me," Han warned. "This will be hard to pull off if someone sees your lightening rod side. I promise I'll send for you and Chewie as soon as I can." The former smuggler brought a hand to Tess' cheek, making sure she was looking at him and listening. "You got it?"

Tess hesitated. Han gave her a look and she finally offered him a nod. Chewbacca came around the corner moments later with a barely-awake princess in his hairy arms.

"General Mulx," called a voice from the hangar. "Your hovercabs, sir." Tess raised her eyebrows.

"Mulx?"

"Yeah… no idea where that one came from," Had admitted. "Still need first names, though. Got any?"

As if she had rehearsed, Tess pointed out each of their aliases. Han and Leia were Karth and Raima Mulx, and Tess was their adopted niece Dania. Han grinned.

"I don't know how you do it, kid."

"I don't either," Tess admitted with a shrug of her shoulders.

Chewbacca asked if it was time to go, and suddenly even Han did not entirely want to. Tess plowed forward and wrapped him in a hug.

"Promise you'll take care of her?" Tess whispered, choking back tears.

"If you promise to take care of yourself."

They finally broke the embrace after another call from the hangar. Han relieved Chewbacca of the princess.

"You know what to do, buddy," he told the Wookie. Leia stirred in Han's arms, but at this point she didn't even have the energy to talk. Tess stood on her toes to give Leia a kiss on the cheek.

"I love you," she whispered. The princess' eyes opened just for a moment in response.

Finally, the group parted ways, aliases memorized and objectives clear. Still, Tess could not shake Luke's warnings from her mind.

* * *

Tess and Chewbacca remained silent for most of the hovercab ride to Skyrail Inn.

"The Rift Skyrail monorail train flies right through the lobby," the white-haired hovercab driver had told them. "Ain't no better sight than the Teyr Rift from the Rail."

He was talking about the 4,000 kilometer long canyon that made Teyr such a tourist attraction. Tess had read about it in her studies around the time the Echo Base was placed on Hoth. Though Teyr was gorgeous, Tess still had to place Alderaan first on the list of the most beautiful places she had ever seen. And so far the hovercab ride was a nice way to see the city.

Chewie didn't say anything about it, but Tess imagined he would disagree. The seven-foot Wookie was too large for the cab, so he was forced to sit slumped over with his knees pressed hard against the empty front passengers' seat.

As they neared a city called Turos Noth, the traffic grew heavier. Chewie spoke to the driver in Shriiwook and Tess spoke for him.

"He's wondering if today is a holiday here," she translated. The driver let out a deep laugh.

"On what planet do they not know about the victory at Endor? We blew up the Empire's space station! We might as well have killed them all!"

Chewie and Tess exchanged grins of pride.

The traffic around the cab became less of other cabs and more of a huge, human crowd. They were cheering and smiling and they all faced the Rift Skyrail to the east. Under it, there was a large stage. The hovercab driver caught Tess looking at it.

"Now that, girl, is a show you need to see before you leave here."

* * *

Han Solo—or Karth Mulx, as far as anyone else was concerned—paced around the medical room assigned to his fake wife. The medics had moved her from the bed to a bacta tank and Han was more than tempted to take advantage of a place to rest. But he couldn't.

A knock on the door stopped Han's pacing.

"General Mulx?" a male medic asked. Han nodded and shook the man's hand. He couldn't help but notice a possible Corellian accent from the medic. If Han weren't Karth Mulx at the moment, he probably would have asked about it. He asked about Leia instead.

"How is she?"

"Your wife is stable," the medic reassured Han. "We've diagnosed her with blastonecrosis, which sounds scary, but you got here just in time. It causes fatigue and loss of appetite, and it almost always fatal if left untreated." Han stopped breathing. "But its nothing that time in the bacta tank won't cure."

"Kriff, say that first next time!" Han exclaimed. He pinched the bridge of his nose, fighting a stress-induced headache. "How long will she be in there?"

"It's hard to tell," the medic admitted. "But I would guess about two or three days in the tank and a week of in-patient recovery."

Han frowned. Mon Mothma wouldn't take kindly to that. They were supposed to be in Coruscant before the week was out. Regardless, Han knew Mon Mothma would eventually understand that Leia's life was at stake and she would be greatful that the princess got back in one piece.

* * *

Chewbacca went from corner to corner of their hotel room, feeling every wall and examining every light.

"Chewie, the place is not bugged," Tess assured her Wookie friend. "No one knows we're here." Chewbacca ignored her.

Tess collapsed on the large bed, feeling herself melt into the covers.

"We need one of these on the _Falcon_," she decided aloud.

Done with inspecting that room, Chewbacca scooped Tess up into his large arms.

"Chewie!" she squealed. "What are you doing?"

"We have to check our other room," Chewie explained in Shriiwook. He pushed open the front door to the first hotel room and crossed to open the second.

"Excuse me, vermin!" shouted an angry man's voice from down the hall. "What are you doing to that child?!"

Tess' glance shot up to a man with purple hair, a black tunic, and matching black pants. His eyebrows looked painted on purple to match his head. Chewbacca growled at the stranger, his height towering above the human.

"I'm sorry to bother you, sir," Tess answered quickly, glaring at Chewie. "Actually, this Wookie is Gorlbakkurr, my bodyguard."

"So you're alright then?"

Tess nodded. Chewbacca accommodatingly stopped looking so menacing and put the young rebel down. The man still seemed to be looking at them oddly.

"Is there something else?"

"What's your name, child?" inquired the man. "I can't help but think you look familiar."

"Dani," Tess replied quickly. "Dania Mulx. I'm visiting with my aunt and uncle."

"Hmph," the man grunted. "Well, I'm off." At that, he spun on a heel and sauntered over to the elevator. Tess watched him walk off, then turned to Chewie.

"Let's go easy on the Wookie escort service in public from now on."

* * *

Han plowed through the crowd outside the Rift Skyrail. Hovercabs would take him to the south side of Turos Noth, but there were none on that side to get him back. He would have to make it through the crowd if he wanted transportation to the Skyrail Inn.

Han still didn't feel right about having no one back at the hospital with Leia. Even if she was in the bacta tank the entire time, he just had an unshakable bad feeling. Luke was probably the one to put it in his head with his grave Jedi warnings.

Suddenly, the crowd intensified. They started cheering a chanting a word, or maybe a name. Scab? Han looked up for the source of the excitement. About the Falcon's length across the crowd, a man with bright purple hair and a black tunic and pant ascended the stage.

"Citizens of Turos Noth," he projected through a microphone. "This. Is. Zkab!" The crowd screamed with enthusiasm. Zkab. This man had to be some kind of Teyr celebrity with the reaction he was provoking. "Guess who we found today?"

Han craned his neck to see. Coming up the left side of the stage was a man in Imperial uniform lead by two others dressed like Zkab. To Han's surprise, as the train passed over the Skyrail, a holoprojector screen began to descent from its edge. It showed close-ups of Zkab and the Imperial on the stage. Zkab grabbed the officer—who didn't look a day older than thirty years old—by the back of the neck.

"Meet Admiral Arka," Zkab said, shaking the young Imperial around a bit. "He piloted a ship trying to get some of the torture devices held by the second _Death Star _before it blew up. And he thought he could hide them out on our planet!"

The mob of people and Zkab alike broke into laughter, and the holoprojection changed. Now it showed three labels at the bottom of the screen—'BLASTER', 'TRAIN', and 'CROWD'. Han watched curiously as the show continued.

"So, what do you guys want?" Zkab suddenly pulled a blaster out of his tunic and shoved it to the admiral's temple. "How many of you want to see Admiral Arka get his head blown off?"

The crowd was mostly quiet. Only a few groups in the far back shared their applause. Han watched wide-eyed. What the hell was this?

Up on the screen, a small bar rose above the 'BLASTER' label. Zkab continued.

"Alright, never a favorite. How about we toss this guy up on the Skyrail track and watch the train crush every Imperial bone in his body?!"

In contrast to the first reaction, for this one at least half of the crowd jumped up and cheered. A bar went halfway up above the 'TRAIN' label on the screen.

"Okay, Turos Noth, last one," Zkab warned. "How many of you would rather deal with this son of a bitch yourselves?!"

The crowd suddenly went wild. Han felt himself getting pushed back and forth. As expected, the bar above 'CROWD' on the holoprojector screen towered above the other two.

"Well then," Zkab concluded. "Looks like the results are clear." Admiral Arka gave the local celebrity a pleading look. Zkab just pushed the man off he stage, into the crowd. "Have at him!"

Han watched in horror as the bloodcurdling screams of the unseen admiral rung in his ears. He was somewhere in the front of the crowd, being savagely beaten and ripped to pieces by the people of Turos Noth.


	54. Chapter 52 - Teyr (4 ABY)

Tess Naberrie ran cool water over her burnt hands. She had removed the bandages to clean and air out the wounds. They were looking a little better now and the feeling in her fingers was finally coming back.

After an hour of literally standing over Tess expecting her to do something she wasn't supposed to, Chewbacca finally gave her some space. They had the doors adjoining the two hotel rooms both open, but he was lying down in one and Tess was trying to pass time in the other.

A beeping noise from the bedroom startled her. Realizing it was the portable holocom in Chewie's room, she quickly dried her hands and ran over to answer the call before it woke the Wookie—just in case it was Luke. Han had been mad at Luke the last time he contacted them so Chewie would most likely feel the same way. Despite her efforts, the Wookie did wake up with a loud yawn, but instead of Luke on the other end of the holocom, Lando Calrissian's blue holographic form appeared.

"Can you get Holonet access right now?" he blurted, not even giving Tess a chance to greet him.

"Well, hello to you too," she responded sarcastically. She sat down on the bed and Chewie placed himself to the right of her, barking a hello to his friend.

"Tess!" Lando snapped. "Holonet. Can you get it?"

The teenager's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, but she gestured for Chewbacca to turn on Holonet.

"Chewie's turning it on," she explained. "What's this about?" Lando shook his head.

"You have to see it for yourself."

With Lando still on the line, Chewbacca pulled up Holonet on the transmission. A man in an Imperial uniform was speaking and the headline under him made Tess' heart stop.

**TESS NABERRIE: THE EMPEROR'S SECRET DAUGHTER**

* * *

Riding the elevator up to the twenty-first floor of the Skyrail Inn, Han replayed the public execution he had just witnessed in his head. He couldn't shake the image of that man's face right before he was tossed into the crowd. Regardless of who the Admiral was and what he had done, Zkab's self-proclaimed "show" was a sadistic, inhuman display. The approval of the crowd was even more sickening. Between Han, Leia, Luke, and Tess, the Empire had played their most brutal cards and Han still wouldn't wish a Zkab execution on any of the Imperials involved. Granted, he and his friends were probably the only ones who were dealt with by Darth Vader directly on those occasions, so most of the animosity was aimed at him.

As Han neared the two hotel room numbers he was looking for, he heard a metallic crash. He quickened his pace.

_I have a bad feeling about this._

Then, a familiar scream made him break into a run.

"Put me down!" It was Tess.

Han finally found the right room—following the numbers and the sounds—and banged on the door with his fist.

"Dania!" he called, remembering her alias. He heard another scream from her, followed by what sounded like a foot against the door amidst a violent struggle.

The door few open just before Han reached for his blaster.

"It took you long enough!" Chewbacca barked in Shriiwook.

Behind him, the room was completely destroyed. A pillow had exploded, the bed sheets were everywhere but on the bed, the mattress had a deep tear, and a lamp was broken on the floor.

"Where the hell is Te—Dania?!" Han demanded. He made a note to himself to lower his voice, especially when using their real names. Chewie rolled his eyes and nodded towards the closet that he was holding shut. The Wookie opened it just long enough for Han to see a furious Tess. She had a sheet rolled into a rope and tired around her middle, restraining her hands. She mumbled an impressive string of curses through the tape on her mouth. Just as she was about to charge out, Chewbacca slammed the closet door shut. They heard Tess run into it and fall to the ground with a thump. "What the hell, Chewie?! I told you to watch her, not kidnap her!"

"She kept trying to get her lightsaber and leave!" Chewie retorted. "She wouldn't take no for an answer!" Han suddenly second-guessed opening the closet.

"Who has the lightsaber?" he asked in a lowered voice. Chewie held up the metallic cylinder, tossed it into the opposite room, closed both doors that lead to it, and stood to guard the doorway. Han nodded. "Good idea."

With that taken care of, Han slowly opened the closet door. Tess had managed to stand up. Han waved her out of the closet. The girl walked slowly to him, allowing him to take the tape off her mouth. Then he turned her around to untie the sheet rope. She glared darkly at Chewbacca.

"I'm going to shave you in your sleep," Tess threatened the Wookie. With her hands released, Han was surprised that she had managed to keep herself from slipping into another hand seizure of Force lightening.

"Alright…" Han sighed, guiding Tess to the edge of the bed and making her sit. "What happened?"

"Everyone knows about me," Tess muttered through clenched teeth. "It's on the kriffing Holonet." Han stood over her with his hands on his hips, making sure to block her exit just in case she was as adamant about leaving as Chewie implied.

"What do you mean?"

"Tess Naberrie, the Emperor's secret daughter," Tess sneered. "It's all over the Holonet. They're acting like I was this big secret he was hiding, but I swear, this has Palpatine's wrinkley handprints all over it! Even when he's _dead _he's in control! They're saying he had an affair with Padme Naberrie. An _affair_! With my _mother_! They're saying he paid for bogus emergency procedures to keep me alive after she died! They're talking about him like he's some misunderstood saint!"

Han just stared at the girl for a moment, then looked to Chewie for confirmation.

"How accurate was the description of you?" he asked.

"They have pictures," Tess informed him regrettably. "Good ones. From when I was on the _Death Star _a week ago. The security system got them."

Han grimaced. That was bad.

"Did they say anything about who you might be seen with?"

Tess shook her head.

"What about a reward?"

She shook her head again.

"I don't think they want me," Tess clarified, still refusing to simmer down completely. "I'm just…I wanted to kill him."

Han knelt in front of the girl, carefully avoiding her hands, just in case.

"Kid…he's dead."

"I know that," Tess shot back. She took a deep breath. "I just needed to get out…see Leia...find you…make sense of things, I guess. I really don't know what I was going to do. I just couldn't sit here any longer. And I was only going to bring the lightsaber for protection." She glanced at the Wookie. "Sorry, Chewie."

Han wondered if this was the kind of thing Luke had to deal with on a regular basis in training Tess. He recalled the Jedi mentioning something to him about Tess being far too impulsive sometimes and not thinking things through. Han could definitely see that now.

Outside the door, a dull roar of voices approached. Han and Tess exchanged glances. He listened for a few more moments. The voices seemed to stop getting closer, but they still got louder. The Corellian raised a finger to Tess, telling her to stay put. Expecting her to listen would make him an idiot, but it was worth a try.

Han slowly cracked open the hotel door and poked his head out to have a look. Sure enough, the kid's head craned for a peek right under him.

The commotion was coming from halfway down the hall, where a man was barking at his assistants. The purple hair sticking out as an immediate identifier, Han gritted his teeth at the sight of Teyr's favorite public executioner.

"You tell me you're bringing an admiral and all you give me is a kid who flies a ship?!" Zkab erupted. "Tomorrow we're breaking out the Empire's torture devices we got from that admiral's ship and putting them to good use. But it won't be worth it unless you find someone Turos Noth actually wants to kill!"

At that, Han pulled Tess inside and slammed the door behind them.

"Do you know what that was about?" the younger of the two inquired worriedly. Han nodded.

"His name is Zkab. He runs public execution of Imperials in the street like it's some sick game show." Han looked at Tess seriously, a hand on each of her shoulders. "Whatever you do, don't let that man see your face. If he finds out who you are…" Han's voice trailed off.

Tess gulped, her eyes bulging with fear.

"He already has."

A knock on the door made all three residents jump. Han quickly moved Tess around to corner. Then he remembered the state of the room. He opened the door just a crack to see a head of blindingly purple hair and to lock eyes with Zkab himself.


	55. Chapter 53 - Teyr (4 ABY)

_WARNING: You might want to read this sitting down._

* * *

"But doesn't Leia still need the medical facilities here?" asked Tess worriedly, stuffing her few belongings into a backpack—mostly weapons. Han was doing the same while Chewbacca guarded both hotel doors.

"She's still going to stay in the hospital," Han responded.

"I'm not leav—"

"We're not going off-planet," he clarified. "You and Chewie are going to stay on the _Falcon_. I'll go sit with Leia until she's well enough for us to leave. You heard what I said earlier. Zkab kills Imperials for public enjoyment, and the Emperor's kid is probably the best thing he can get his hands on for that."

Han swung his bag up onto one shoulder, then helped Tess do the same with her much heavier one.

"What makes the _Falcon_ any safer than here?"

"Well, first off," Han began, getting irritated. "Zkab doesn't live four doors down from the _Falcon_. Secondly, there's only one entrance there to guard while here, there are two. Three if you could the door in between the two rooms. Third, I said so."

At that, Han took Tess firmly by the arm and lead her to the door. She shook him off and followed on her own.

"Chewie is going to carry you," Han told her. "Pretend like you're sleeping so people don't see your face."

Tess glared at him.

"What am I, five?"

"You're short enough."

"Shut up."

Knowing it was for the greater good considering her picture was plastered across the Holonet right now, Tess allowed Chewbacca to lift her into his arms. Compared to the seven-foot Wookie, Tess probably did look young enough to fall asleep on her hairy babysitter. She turned her head into his neck, covering her face more. It was a good thing the Wookie had taken a shower last night.

"Perfect," Han confirmed.

"Yeah," Tess agreed. "But I hope you don't mind if I get too in-character and actually fall asleep."

* * *

Though Tess tried to let herself relax as they rode the Rift Skyrail to the hangar, being out in public made her more nervous than she expected. Regardless of her contributions to the Rebel Alliance since she was eleven years old, this planet's violent hatred for Imperials would only see her as the Emperor's daughter.

"How precious," Tess heard a nearby woman say. "Your daughter?" For a moment Tess was offended, thinking the woman was asking if she was Chewie's daughter.

"My niece," she heard Han answer. Tess tensed, hoping the woman wouldn't recognize her somehow, even without seeing her face.

"How old is she?" the woman asked.

"Nine."

_What the hell?! No one will believe that!_

"Oh," the woman responded. "She's small for her age."

_Kriff_. There was no way Tess wouldn't be hearing the last of that once they were back on the ship.

* * *

_Fear. Flashes of bright, blue light. Screams of so many names that she could not pick out one from the din. Screaming…screaming…_

_So much screaming…_

Leia awoke with a gasp, bolting upright. She could still hear the screams, but a moment later she realized it was someone from across the hall. The princess vaguely remembered being brought into a hospital, but she wasn't sure if it was a dream or reality until now—unless this was a dream.

She wiggled her toes beneath the pale pink blanket, clenched her hands, and turned her head from side to side. Other than a stiff neck, she was relieved that everything seemed to be in working order.

Leia couldn't even remember why she was here. Noticing her hospital bracelet, she hoped it would give her some answers.

**RAIMA MULX**

**TUROS NOTH MEDICAL CENTER**

Well, that was at least something. She was lucid enough to remember that they were landing on Teyr, so unless Turos Noth was the name of the facility's founder, she assumed it was the city they were in. It sounded familiar enough. And of course now she knew what alias she had, which would definitely be important. The last thing she needed was to stay here longer with a presumed case of amnesia. She didn't know what alias Han was using, but for the past two years every time they had to go by an alias they were husband and wife, so she assumed now would be no different.

The hospital was loud. Leia suspected it was a bit crowded too, especially after seeing that she shared the room with two sleeping women.

As the patient down the hall whipped out another scream, Leia remembered her nightmare. It had no location, really. No specific faces. But there were people. Lots of people. Leia closed her eyes to focus. They were afraid. Terrified. Running. A dark sky. Bright flashes of lightening. A storm?

"Mrs. Mulx!" came a male medic's voice from the door. "I didn't expect you to be awake so soon. How are you feeling?"

"Perfect," Leia answered quickly, adding a convincing smile. The medic raised his eyebrows.

"Normally blastonecrosis has some lingering fatigue during the recovery days," he informed her, checking her vitals. "You really feel fine?"

"I never stay sick for long." She silently thanked her Force-sensitivity for the immune system boost, suddenly realizing that was probably why she almost never fell ill growing up.

"Well," the medic sighed. "It seems you're right. I had scheduled two more rounds in the bacta tank, but I guess I'll have to cancel those." Thank the Force for that. Bacta tanks were not kind to claustrophobia. Leia started to push herself to a stand.

"Good, so I'm released now?"

"Whoa… Not so fast," the medic chuckled, gently pushing her back down on the bed. "You need a couple of days of recovery. I'm sure your husband would agree."

Leia sighed. She should have known it wouldn't be that easy.

The medic took Leia's arm and began cleaning it with a damp alcohol pad.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Sterilizing the area." The medic pulled a needle from his coat pocket and it might as well have been a wild Kath Hound. Leia immediately jumped to a stand on the other side of the bed, her hand over the trail of four-and-a-half-year-old injection scars from the IT-O Interrogator droid.

"No needles," Leia demanded.

"But it's just to draw blood and—"

"NO. NEEDLES."

* * *

"Alright, coast is clear," Han confirmed. Chewbacca growled a joking 'good morning' and set Tess back down on her feet. She looked around, a bit groggy after relaxing on the comfortable Wookie for so long. The first thing she noticed was that the hangar was completely empty.

"Shouldn't there at least be workers here?" she wondered aloud. Han nodded, clearly thinking the same thing. Before Tess could get ahead, he put a hand on her shoulder. He tossed Chewie a blaster.

"Check it out first, will ya?"

Chewbacca compliantly lowered the boarding ramp on the _Falcon_ and walked up. Tess shook her head slightly.

"I have a bad feeling about this," she confessed. Han squeezed her shoulder.

"I bet it's just Zkab's big show," he guessed. "So big it's a holiday or something."

Suddenly, an angry Wookie growl and the sound of blaster fire exploded from the _Millennium Falcon_. Both Han and Tess were frozen stiff for a moment before bolting towards the ship. The blaster fire had stopped, which could only mean one of two things: Chewie had killed whatever intruders he had run into, or they had shot Chewie.

Fearing the worst, Tess bolted ahead of Han, whipping her lightsaber out of her backpack in the process. It ignited with a blue-green glow. She raced up the dock to find Chewbacca wounded and unconscious—she wouldn't for a moment let herself believe he was dead.

Tess was about to run to Chewie's side before she was snatched off her feet from behind, her lightsaber knocked out of her hand.

"Kid—!"

Another blaster shot. A thump as someone crumpled to the ground.

_No._

Tess fought her attacker vigorously to at least let her turn around. For the first time since her encounter with the Emperor, she was glad that the Force lightening spurted from her fingers, weakening her attacker just enough for her to squirm away.

Tess turned around to a baster barrel between the eyes. Looking up, she recognized Zkab. She slowly raised her hands in surrender.

"That's more like it," Zkab sneered. "Tess Naberrie, spawn of the Emperor. This truly is a pleasure." He grabbed her around the shoulders with one hand, keeping the blaster in the other. Only then did Tess see Han, wincing in pain on the ground with a blaster wound to the chest.

"Han," Tess whimpered. For a second she fought against Zkab to go to him, but as he pulled her back she remembered who had the blaster. "Please don't kill him. Please, I'll go with you—just don't kill him!"

"No…" Han protested. He tried to rise to a stand, but fell back down in pain. Three of Zkab's men moved to his side to prevent him from doing it again.

"I'll accept your conditions," Zkab told her condescendingly, sadistically amused. Suddenly, Tess squealed as a needle entered her arm. She turned to the source and saw another one of Zkab's men injecting her with something. "A mild sedative, Tess. Just to assure that there will be no more Force business that dear old daddy taught you. Don't think I can't find your friend again and kill him."

Instinctively, Tess weighed the odds of escaping. There were at least one of Zkab's men behind her, the one at her side, and three by Han. Not great. Especially watching one of the men by Han put her lightsaber in some sort of safe.

"Don't try anything," Zkab whispered eerily, as if reading her thoughts. His breath on her ear sent chills all throughout Tess' body. "Though part of me wants to see that power inside you."

"If you touch her…" Han muttered.

As if it was all a game, Zkab ran his hand slowly down Tess' cheek, passing a few streaks of tears.

"Touched her."

A furious Han fought through the pain, scrambling to his feet. He lunged at Zkab for just a moment before Zkab's men shoved him back into the wall.

"Han!" Tess sobbed. At this point she didn't care if they took her, as long as her friends were alright. She choked up her fear, fought through the sedative that was quickly setting in, and met eyes with Han. "It's okay. It will be okay." All Han could do was shake his head. They both knew what awaited Tess if she went with Zkab. "Don't blame yourself. Don't let Leia or Luke blame themselves either." She paused, refusing to break down any further. "I love all of you."

"Very touching," said Zkab insincerely. "Now let's go." He started to drag Tess off the Falcon. She heard Han try to get up another time, but she couldn't bear to turn around and look at him.

Gods, what would he tell Luke and Leia? Leia in particular would kill or die to save her sister. Tess knew as well as anybody because she would do the same. Then, it hit her as they left the hangar.

_I'm going to die._

Tess surprised even herself with her resolve. Today, she would die. Not because she was the spawn of the Emperor, but to save her friends' lives. That was the only logic that made it bearable.

Then suddenly, Zkab pulled out a comlink.

"Kill him."

A blaster fired.

Tess just froze, mouth agape. Then, she erupted into an inhuman scream that could be heard from the Rift Skyrail.


	56. Chapter 54 - Dantooine (5 ABY)

**_- - - - - Dantooine - - - - -_**

**_- - - - - Two Months Later - - - - - _**

_Tess heard the screams of thousands stabbing in her ears, only to realize it was really just her own cry. Lightening shot up through every part of her body—every bone, every muscle, every vein. She was tempted to let death come._

_But until it did, all she could do was scream._

_"Tess!"_

_…Leia?_

* * *

"Tess!"

Tess Naberrie's dark brown eyes bolted open to meet her sister's matching ones. Her vision was blurry and it took her muscles a moment to adjust to consciousness.

As Tess' vision cleared, she realized she couldn't remember where she was supposed to be. She consulted her surroundings for answers. What she saw seemed like something out of a dream.

"We're…"

"In your old collage on Dantooine," Leia finished. Only then did Tess notice the tears in her sister's eyes.

"What's the matter?" asked Tess. Leia sniffed back her emotions and squeezed her sister's hand.

"I'm just happy you're awake," confessed the princess.

Tess once again looked around the room, this time noticing the changes instead of the familiarities. It was without a doubt her old room from when she was nine to eleven years old, and the last place she lived before being ripped from her guardian's arms by Imperials. The bed was the same, but it had different sheets. There were new dark blue curtains on the window that matched them. And to Tess' right, there was some sort of machine that she had seen before in the medical wings of every rebel base.

Had she gotten sick? Tess could only remember Leia being sick. On Teyr. But flying from Teyr to Dantooine—when did that happen? Teyr was west of the Inner Rim and Dantooine was one of the Outer Rim Territories in the Raioballo Sector—practically a galaxy away. Of all places, why were they here?

"We got here about a month ago," Leia explained, seeing the questions in her sister's eyes. But that only gave Tess more questions.

"I…I've been asleep for a month?"

"Two, actually," Leia clarified, smiling slightly as her eyes began to well up again. "You're been in a coma for two months."

Tess half expected the four walls to fall down around her—that this was all just a silly prank. She would be on the _Falcon_ with Han, Luke, Chewie, and the droids, and they would be laughing up a storm for fooling her.

As Tess spoke again, she was so detached that the words hardly felt like they were coming out of her own mouth.

"What happened?"

"Where do I start?" Leia chuckled, tensing noticeably. "What do you remember?"

Tess sighed, closing her eyes in thought.

"You were sick," she began slowly. "We were on Teyr…and Zkab…"

Suddenly, as Tess said Zkab's name, everything came rushing back. Her eyes filled with tears.

"Han…" Tess sobbed. "I…I let them…they killed Han…"

She hardly heard Leia's attempts at reassurance over her sobs. As if Tess' tears were too inconsolable to deal with, the princess left the room. Tess rolled over and buried her face in her pillow. It was no wonder Leia left—she probably didn't forgive Tess for killing the man she loved. It was her fault. All her fault…

Suddenly, a familiar comforting hand touched her shoulder. Tess stifled her cries for a moment, as if listening would prove if this was real or not. She was afraid to say his name. As it turned out, she didn't need to.

"Hey, kid."

Tess practically flipped onto her other side, finding herself face to face with a very much alive Han Solo. She slowly reached forward to touch his shoulder and make sure he wasn't a post-comatose mirage. As soon as her fingertips made contact with the fabric of his shirt, she threw herself into his arms.

"We didn't know if you would wake up or not," Han told Tess after a few moments, squeezing her back just as tightly.

"But if you didn't get shot…?" she pondered aloud. Suddenly, the color drained from Tess' face. She broke the hug. "…Chewie…?"

"No, no," Han reassured her quickly. "Zkab's com was enough to distract his man and for me to grab his blaster. No, Chewie's visiting his family on Kashyyyk. The shot you heard was me nailing one into the guy guarding us."

Tess collapsed back on her pillow with relief. Leia joined the two of them, sitting opposite of Han on Tess' bed and reminding her of the questions that remained.

"The last thing I remember…" she recalled slowly. "Is hearing the blaster fire. I thought one of Zkab's men had just killed Han. I screamed." Tess thought hard for several more moments, but her memory ended there. "That's it."

Han and Leia exchanged brief glances. The princess leaned forward to take Tess' hand.

"We got you out of there," she said in a soft voice.

Something about her tone told Tess that she wasn't going to get any more than that.

* * *

Leia stepped out of the small cottage, inhaling the fresh Dantooine air. Han followed her out.

"I don't feel right about this," he confessed. The princess spun around to face him.

"Then what do you suggest?" Leia snapped. "The last decision you made flipped our entire world upside-down. My family…my job…" She kept herself turned away from the Corellian, refusing to let him see her cry.

"We had to land on Teyr," Han assured her softly. "You would have died. The medic said so."

"Luke told you not to."

"I know," Han shot back, still maintaining a calmer tone. He sighed. "If you think one of these sixty-four days has gone by that I don't regret landing on the next-closest planet—anywhere but Taris—then you really are insane, Princess."

Leia was silent. If Han hadn't known the woman like he did, he would think she was done. But she always had to have the last word.

"She can never know what happened to her on Teyr," Leia reminded Han gravely. She turned to face him, meeting his eyes with stern resolve. "She can never know what she did."


	57. Chapter 55 - Dantooine (5 ABY)

Sitting upright in her bed, eyes closed and hands on her knees, Tess Naberrie urged the Force to help her regain her strength. Two months in a coma had left her muscles weak and slow to respond. Her body hovered steadily a few inches off the bed.

Suddenly, Han came in, breaking Tess' concentration. She rocked from one side to the other for a moment as if trying to regain her balance, then fell back on the bed. The Corellian winced apologetically.

"Sorry…"

Tess adjusted herself on the bed, straightening her legs out in front of her. "It's fine," she assured him. Han couldn't help but grin. "What?"

"I've just never seen you meditate willingly," he said.

Tess laughed slightly. "Yeah, well, I've never been this desperate to get my strength back." She looked out the window longingly through the half-open dark blue curtains. "I used to go out in the Fields of Benir every day like clockwork."

Tess recalled her childhood here with a grin. Though she spent the first nine years of her life living on Alderaan, Dantooine was the place that truly felt like home. Han sat on the edge of the bed.

"The healing thing…" he brought up carefully. "Nothing too intense, right?"

"No, I promise," Tess assured him. She knew Han didn't care about her using the Force as much as Leia did. She missed Luke. Thinking about her brother, Tess began to wonder where exactly he was in all of this. "Is Luke still on Tatooine?"

"Yes," Han answered after a moment. Tess could tell that he didn't want her to inquire further, but she did anyway.

"Can I com him?"

"No."

Tess put on her most innocent smile. "Please?"

Han groaned and pushed himself to a stand. "One sec." He left the room for a moment and came back not with a comlink or portable holocom, but with a small rectangular box. "Your sixteenth birthday was two weeks ago. Luke sent this for you."

A wide grin on her face, Tess savagely tore the silver lid off the box. Slowly and with awe-filled eyes, she lifted out a brand new lightsaber.

"We never got your first one back on Teyr," Han explained. "I snagged it before Leia could see that it came for you. You may have some lightening issues, but for the most part you seem to handle yourself well with one of those things."

Tess didn't know what to say. She could feel the weapon's power in the tips of her fingers. It was constructed so much better than the first one that she made herself. She looked up at Han, beaming with anticipation.

"What color is it?"

"I don't know," he chuckled. "Why don't you check?" Tess hesitantly nodded towards the opposite room that Leia stayed in. "You can turn it on," Han assured her. "Leia is outside."

Tess let out a small squeal of anticipation, not wasting another second to ignite the device. A bright yellow glow that matched the Dantooine sun shot up from the hilt.

"The color…it looks just like Inny's did." Tess was absolutely in love. Her excitement transformed into awe. She swished the device back and forth a few times, listening to the familiar hum. The saber was a bit heavier that her last one, Tess noticed. The twenty-five centimeter hilt on this one was shorter and the blade seemed longer. The young Force-sensitive disengaged her weapon of choice and took more time to examine the Firebrand hilt, from the dark metallic color to the pommel cap at the base securing a back-up power cell.

"What do you think?" Han inquired, breaking her fixation on the birthday present.

Tess still couldn't take her eyes off the lightsaber.

"It's beautiful."

Suddenly, Tess sensed a familiar Force presence. She stuffed her new lightsaber behind her pillow just in time before Leia walked in.

Tess and Han's plastered grins of innocence were a dead giveaway that they had something to hide. She narrowed her eyes at Tess, then Han.

"What are you two up to?" she asked knowingly.

"Nothing," they answered in unison. Though Leia clearly wasn't fooled, she didn't seem in the mood to argue.

"I'm going to the Falcon to pick up some of Tess' clothes," she informed them. "You two going to be alright here?"

Their unshakable impish grins still keeping the princess suspicious, Han and Tess each gave her affirmative nods.

* * *

"You're sure Leia will be gone long enough?" Tess asked Han for the third time.

"Yes, kid," Han told her with exaggerated frustration. "Now just soak up the freedom and quit asking about your sister."

After being comatose for two months, Tess' legs still weren't strong enough to manage more than a stumble to the refresher, so Han carried her on his back. She was trying to direct him to a valley she remembered. Tess used to go there for picnics with Inny. With the rising yellow-green hills surrounding it like a wall, it was the perfect place to train with her new lightsaber once she was fully mobile again.

"It's over there," Tess instructed, pointing east. Han hoisted her a big higher on his back and turned in the right direction.

"I'm not carrying you down a hill, you know."

"I know, I just want to see it again."

Finally, they made it to the valley. Han stood at the top of the steep incline and whistled at the sight. It was almost as if a small moon had bounced off the field, leaving a deep dent in the ground.

As Tess grinned from ear to ear, Han helped her get down and together they sat at the edge of the hill. Looking at Tess' smile, Han couldn't help but smile himself.

"You really loved it here, huh?"

Tess nodded, her fingers entwining with the blades of grass beneath her.

"Until I was nine, Uncle Bail had me on Alderaan," Tess explained. "I never knew why—maybe for my protection, or he didn't want me to feel my connection to Leia, or maybe it was just to keep a close eye on me—I don't know, but for whatever reason, I was almost never allowed to leave the house."

Han's eyebrows raised in surprise. He found it hard to imagine Tess cooped up inside for too long.

"When Inny took me to Dantooine," she continued, "At first I didn't want to be so far away from Uncle Bail, but I fell in love with this planet as soon as I first stepped foot on the Fields of Benir."

Han smiled. The planet did have a quaint, homey appeal to it. As Han seemed a bit lost in his thoughts for a moment, Tess felt compelled to mention something that had been on her mind.

"Can I ask you something personal?"

Han tensed noticeably as if he feared this, though he couldn't have known exactly what Tess would ask. Regardless, he nodded.

Tess continued. "Are you are Leia… are you two having a fight or something?"

The former smuggler avoided her glance, either ignoring her or trying to think of how to answer Tess' question.

"Is it…" Her voice trailed off anxiously for a moment. "Is it because of me?"

Han's hazel eyes darted in Tess' direction.

"What?" he exclaimed. "No, no, of course not."

Tess gulped. "So you're having a fight then?"

Han sighed. "I wouldn't call it that…" he confessed softly. "Kid…Tess… your sister and I aren't together anymore."

Tess' jaw dropped. Han and Leia bantered for years, but since their escape from Jabba's palace on Tatooine, the two were quite clearly together. It wouldn't seem that way to the casual observer, but really Han and Leia were perfect for eachother.

Seeing Tess was speechless, Han felt the need to elaborate.

"Luke told me not to land on Teyr," he muttered. "I didn't listen. Once Leia processed that if I would have listened to Luke…" His voice trailed off. "She blames me for everything we ran into there… but that's because I let her."

"Why?" Tess asked in a small voice. Han met her eyes.

"Because if your sister didn't blame me for landing on Teyr, she would blame herself for being the reason I did it."

As the Dantooine sun began to set and the orange sky made the grass glow, Tess saw right through Han.

"You still love her," she pointed out matter-of-factly.

Han didn't need to answer for Tess to know it was true.


	58. Chapter 56 - Dantooine (5 ABY)

Han Solo stretched out on the living room couch as much as it permitted. With Tess occupying her old room and Leia in the master bedroom, he had apparently drawn the short straw of sleeping arrangements without realizing it.

Though it smelled funny, was too short for him, and had uncomfortably coarse fabric, none of those factors were the worst part about being stuck on the couch. The worst part was listening to Leia fight through nightmare after nightmare and not being able to console her afterwards. Their first night in the cottage, he had peeked in after hearing the princess scream herself awake, but she waved him off with a gut-wrenching "I'm not your problem anymore."

He doubted he was the type to talk or cry out in his sleep while battling a bad dream, but Han had definitely suffered from his share of nightmares these past two months. Most of them were flashbacks. He relived the decision to land on Teyr, and the ambush on the _Falcon_, and sometimes the day Leia broke up with him. Each time he did something different to change fate. Then of course he would wake up to reality.

Everything was just so wrong. Tess was the kind of kid who couldn't sit still, and Han watched her lie as still as death for two months. Leia had practically planned how the New Rebellion would run, but now she couldn't be a part of it. Luke used to actually be part of the gang, but now he was just this ominous ghost of a presence that only made contact when there was trouble. And Han—well, Han was living in a cottage with his ex and her post-comatose kid sister.

Sleeping on the couch.

* * *

Tess promised herself that tomorrow, she would try to ask Leia what happened on Teyr. It was driving her crazy. Obviously she was rescued at one point, but how long was she with Zkab and his entourage before that happened? And what put her in a coma? Tess had inspected her body for bruises or scars as evidence, but if there were any, they had healed while she was unconscious.

Still, there was something different when Tess looked at herself in the mirror. Naturally, two months asleep had made her paler and thinner, but it was more than that. The veins in her forehead popped out like spider legs from her scalp, blue and slightly raised. Her skin had a sort of transparency with sickly yellow undertones. She remembered her eyes to be dark brown like her sister's, but now there was a strange golden color surrounding the rim of her irises.

For all Tess knew, this was just what people looked like after waking up from comas. And if it weren't for the nagging of Force-sensitive intuition, she would probably let it go. But that intuition had saved her life too many times to be ignored.

The sixteen-year-old rolled over in her bed, pulling the covers with her.

_Tomorrow,_ she promised herself. _I'll ask her._


	59. Chapter 57 - Dantooine (5 ABY)

Weaving through the second of two braids on either side of her head, Tess Naberrie left her bedroom with a yawn. Her meditation must have been paying off because her stumble had finally become more of a walk. Her body still felt heavy to carry so strolls on the fields would be a bit much, but for now, being able to walk around the house was enough to make Tess proud of her progress.

Han was already up, sipping caf and scrolling through a data pad.

"Morning," Tess greeted. She crossed to the pantry for a ration bar. Normally, she only ate one of those when there was nothing else on the _Falcon_, but now there was a sort of nostalgia attached to them.

Tess planted herself beside Han, reading over his shoulder about cheaper alternative devices that could replace a hydrospanner.

"Something wrong with the ship?" Tess asked with a mouth full of ration bar. Han shook his head.

"Nah. Just always open to suggestions for improving her." There was a sort of bitterness in his voice, as if she had struck a nerve. Han was a bit sensitive sometimes when it came to the _Falcon_. Tess thought it best to drop the subject.

"Is Leia still sleeping?"

"She went out early," Han informed her. Tess sucked in her cheek with impatient frustration.

"She's been doing that a lot," she observed. "Alliance business?"

Han's face indicated that Tess asked just the right question to discover yet another change that occurred while she was unconscious. He had to make that face quite a bit these past few days.

"It's the…uh…New Republic now," Han said. His voice was low and he looked like he was subtly bracing himself for impact. Tess' jaw dropped.

"We did it?" she gasped. "We really did it?"

"We're not out of the woods yet," Han reminded her. "There are still rogue Imperials fighting back and commanders and officers trying to rein in a group of buddies to restore the Empire, but as of about a month and a half ago, the New Republic is the new galactic government."

Han tapped through his datapad for a moment, then handed it to Tess to read.

(I swear, this is the actual excerpt from the Declaration of the New Republic. Sound familiar, fellow Americans?)

**WE, THE BEINGS OF THE GALAXY, IN ORDER TO FORM A FREE UNION OF PLANETS, ESTABLISH JUSTICE, PROVIDE FOR COMMON PEACE AND PROSPERITY, AND TO SECURE LIBERTY FOR ALL BEINGS; DO ORDAIN AND ESTABLISH THIS NEW REPUBLIC. LET THE STARS SING! LET THE PLANETS SHOUT! LET THE REPUBLIC BEGIN!**

**As this excerpt from the Declaration of a New Republic was read at the Constitutional Convention, not one being could keep from cheering. The Alliance to Restore the Republic—commonly referred to as the "Rebels" or the "Rebel Alliance"—formed six years ago when the Corellian Treaty was signed. Their goal was to restore a government similar to that of the Old Order. After dealing a devastating blow to the Empire, the Alliance emerged victorious, propelling a great portion of the galaxy into celebration.**

**The New Republic's several collaborative branches include a civil government, an advisory council of seven Alliance government representatives, a cabinet, allied commands, a military, and Chief of State Mon Mothma.**

Tess went on to scan through the list of New Republic founders with her finger.

"Leia isn't mentioned," Han interrupted, knowing exactly what Tess was looking for and saving her the time.

"What?" she exclaimed. "But—Leia's been there since the beginning! She's dedicated her life to the Alliance for six years!"

"It's a long story," Han answered quickly, pushing himself to a stand.

Tess' jaw locked tensely as she met his eyes. "Why can't you just tell me that it's because I had to go and throw myself into a coma?"

"It's not your fault!" Han shot back.

Tess stood up to meet his level as much as her short stature permitted. "Well, excuse me for noticing that our entire world has been flipped upside-down while I was asleep!" She was fuming. "And no one will tell me how I got away from Zkab, why I was in a coma, or why I've been smuggled away to an old Dantooine cottage like an unconscious fugitive!"

"Listen, kid," Han spat, taking Tess by the shoulders. "Besides maybe the carbon freezing, when that purple-haired bastard dragged you away, that was the scariest moment of my life. Or at least I thought so, until what happened afterwards. And you know what, scratch the carbonate—that was a blue milk run compared to this. Believe me when I say that you are lucky as hell that you don't remember, because your sister and I are going to have nightmares of that day for the rest of our lives."

Teeth clenched in stubborn indifference, Tess shook Han's hands off her shoulders.

"No matter how hard you try to keep it from me," she told him with a steady glare. "I'm either going to find out or I'm going to remember. Whether I find out from someone I love and trust is up to you and Leia."

At that, Tess turned towards the front door. Han rushed ahead to stand in her way.

"Where are you going?" he demanded.

"To find my sister."

"No. She said not to let you go out on your own."

"Oh, really?" Tess laughed. "I thought you guys broke up. It's pretty sad that you're still doing everything she tells you to do."

Han gave her a look that clearly said he was on his last threat of self-restraint before slapping that smirk off her face. He had to take a deep breath, then took Tess by the wrist and started dragging her towards her bedroom.

"I answer to your sister on the subject of you, and only you," Han said gruffly. "Because if you haven't noticed, kid, she would give her life for you."

Tess grabbed onto the door hinge like a child throwing a tantrum, but Han ignored her.

"Correction," he added, finally pushing Tess into her room and slamming the door behind her. "Leia _has _given her life up for you."

* * *

Tess threw one powerful bang at the door with both of her fists. She tried the knob after hearing Han leave the doorway, but it was locked from the outside.

Pacing furiously back and forth, Tess contemplated using her lightsaber to cut a hole in the door. It didn't take her long to realize that would be like a toddler running out of their time-out corner just to get dragged back in. She instead crossed to the 'fresher, which fortunately was connected to her bedroom. She ran cool water in the sink, then looked in the mirror at her dripping face. She brought a hand up to touch one of her anger-hot cheeks.

_She let out a bone-chilling scream at the sound of the blaster shot. Zkab slapped Tess hard on the side of her face, then roughly grabbed her under the chin. Her jaw bone felt like it could have crushed in his fingers. Tears in her eyes, Tess slowly covered her tender cheek with her hand as Zkab dragged her out of the hangar._

Tess stumbled backwards and ran into the half-open 'fresher door, sending her sprawling flat on her back. She vigorously scooted backwards until she hit the end of her bed. Her hand had not moved from her cheek.

She heard the sound of Han running into the door full-speed before he remembered it was locked. The locks clicked and Han came barreling in. It took him a moment to notice Tess on the floor, and another moment for her to get any words out.

"I'm fine," she reassured him. "But I…I think I remembered something."

Though that clearly worried him, Han's main priority was to get a medpack from the 'fresher. Tess shook her head.

"I told you, I'm fine."

Han ignored her. It wasn't until he urged her to take her hand off her cheek that Tess realized her hands were singed. Han winced, looking at the side of Tess' face.

"You got your cheek, too," he told her. That explained why she thought she could still feel the slap there. Han started wrapping up Tess' hands. By how, he could probably do it blindfolded. "So it happened when you remembered? The lightening?"

"It was more of a flashback," Tess explained softly, still trying to understand it all. "I was washing my face, and then all of a sudden it was like—I _was_—back at the hangar where I thought you got shot. I screamed. Zkab slapped me, then grabbed me like this." Tess demonstrated as best as she could on her own jaw. "And that was it."

"Nothing else?"

Tess shook her head. She examined her burns with a frown. She had started to think maybe the coma had knocked the lightening out of her.

"I don't remember the lightening," she admitted. "I guess it was just there for the flashback."

Han was listening to Tess and nodding, but he wouldn't look at her. She was beginning to wonder if he and Leia were right. Maybe it would be better if Tess never remembered what happened on Teyr.

* * *

Following the remote with her eyes as it moved around the room, Leia Organa whipped her self-constructed blue lightsaber up to block one last blast.

"Good!" Luke encouraged his sister through portable holocom. Leia disengaged her lightsaber and turned the remote off. She shook a tingle out of her hands after pocketing her weapon.

"It's heavy."

"You get used to it."

Leia took the portable holocom off the workbench and let herself slump to the ground of the Jedi Temple ruins. Some walls still held up, but it was mostly in shambles. The Force energy was undeniable, though, even for a novice like Leia.

"How is she?" Luke asked, referring to Tess.

"She's recovering well," Leia informed him with a sigh. "She can walk around the house without too much trouble. And she still doesn't remember anything."

"Do you want her to remember?" Luke asked carefully. Leia pinched the bridge of her nose.

"I don't know…" she confessed. "I know I don't want to tell her myself. But…"

"But what?"

Leia bit her lip. "I can't help but be afraid she'll have to relive it if she remembers on her own. Moment by moment, every feeling, every…" The princess voice trailed off for as second. "Who's to say that won't put her back in that dark place? What if this time she can't come back from it? But if I'm the one to tell her…I don't know…maybe it would prepare her for remembering."

Luke just nodded, showing no opinion on the matter through his expression.

"Why did you ask me to start training you in the Force?"

Leia hated when Luke followed her emotional outpours with a question he already knew the answer to. Regardless, she smothered her frustration and answered.

"So I could understand Tess. Protect her, maybe. Make her feel like she can actually talk to me so she doesn't bottle everything up inside."

Luke nodded. "You love Tess, and you want to help her. But you must find your own place in the Force, too."

"Luke, stop," Leia interjected. "Stop talking to me like I'm your apprentice." Her eyes started to well up with tears, but she didn't let them fall. Her voice softened to a small plea. "I need my brother right now."

Luke's expression modified just a little. He was silent for a moment.

"I'm sorry," he told her sincerely. He couldn't bear to see her sad. Even just looking at her face through the holocom allowed him to feel her pain from planets away. "I'm worried about Tess, too."

"I want to believe that," the princess admitted. "But you left after Endor—after Tess found out about the Emperor—right when she needed you the most. You heard what they did to her on Teyr…and what she did. You still stayed on Tatooine. I gave up my position in the New Republic to stay with her. That was my dream! Kriff, Luke! I had just broken up with Han and even he cared enough about Tess to give up his life and make sure I didn't go crazy watching my sister just lie there lifelessly for two whole months!" Leia was crying shamelessly by now. She glared into the holographic replicas of her brother's eyes. "Han and I were both there when Tess woke up. Where were you?"

Luke didn't have an answer suitable enough to be verbalized. Leia stood up, portable holocom in hand.

"Don't try to contact me again unless you have something to offer besides Force metaphors and predictions of misfortune."

On that note, Leia turned off the portable holocom and stomped out of the ancient ruins of the Jedi Temple.


	60. Chapter 58 - Dantooine (5 ABY)

As Leia Organa returned to the cottage, she was surprised to see Han waiting outside for her to arrive. She quickened her pace a little, sensing something was wrong. Han met her halfway between the house and a hill she had just passed over.

"What is it?" the princess asked worriedly.

Han turned around to check the house, probably making sure Tess was still inside. "It's Tess. She's starting to remember."

Leia took a deep breath while Han watched her expectantly. She thought she would have at least a couple of nights to think about this. After her conversation with Luke—though it was counterproductive for their relationship—for the first time, Leia saw some benefits in telling Tess the truth.

"How much did she remember?"

"Just Zkab slapping her," Han informed Leia. "Right after I shot the guard. Maybe she's remembering in order."

Leia could see that Han's worry earlier was not just for a small memory like that. "There's something else."

Han looked down slightly. "It was just for a second, during the flashback…" he murmured. "But she had another lightening episode. Not as bad as the last ones, but her hand was on her face at the time…"

"I need to tell her," Leia suddenly decided aloud. She started walking back towards the cottage. "Not everything yet. I'll start slow. But if she gets a zap big enough to burn for remembering a slap, I need to tell her before she remembers everything else."

* * *

Leia knocked gently on her sister's bedroom door.

"Han, I told you, I'm fine," came a voice from inside.

Leia opened the door and peeked her head in with a small smile. "Wanna talk?"

Tess' eyebrows raised as if her sister's words were completely out of character. She scooted back on the bed to give Leia a spot in front of her. The princess took it and couldn't help but look more closely at the burn on the girl's cheek.

"It doesn't hurt," Tess assured her sister, leaning forward as Leia tried to get a closer look. "And you can't see through the bandages, but the burns on my hands don't look like they'll scar."

Leia nodded, smoothing out the sheets beside her. Now that she was so close, she once again wondered if telling Tess the truth was the right thing to do. Maybe she would never remember what happened.

"Is something wrong?" asked Tess.

Leia finally looked up from the blankets. "Do you think you're up for a walk?"

"Sure," Tess shrugged. She rolled off the bed onto her feet and crossed to the closet. "Let me just change into something lighter."

Leia pulled out the hidden lightsaber from under Tess' pillow and ignited it. The sixteen-year-old spun around, the picture of guilt on her face.

"I was going to—"

"Make sure you bring this," Leia interrupted. She turned off the lightsaber and tossed it to her sister. "I'll wait outside."

* * *

Leia watched a blindfolded Tess block every shot from the new top-of-the-line training remote that Luke sent them. For the first time, the princess allowed herself to be proud of her sister for her accomplishments in Jedi training instead of fearing the danger it might put her in. Tess really had a talent. She was not as physically strong as Luke, but she was agile and used her small frame to her advantage.

After about a half hour, Tess removed her blindfold, turned off the remote, and joined Leia at the bottom of the valley's incline. She took off her gloves to inspect her bandaged burns.

"I could have gone longer," Tess claimed. "But I didn't want to overdo it. The last thing I need is to make these worse before they get better."

"You're getting really good," Leia told her.

"Really?" Tess beamed. The princess nodded in confirmation. But her sister had just smiled like it was her first compliment from Leia—had she really been that oblivious to Tess' improvement?

"So…" Tess began unsurely. "I was under the impression that you brought me here to talk to me about something."

"I did." Leia gently brought a hand to Tess' unburned cheek. She looked even more pale in the daylight somehow. "You think your freckles will come back after you get some sun?"

"Maybe," Tess replied. "But I would be happy if that one vein stopped looking like something is trying to crawl out of my forehead."

The princess grinned. "You're still beautiful, though."

"Not as beautiful as you."

"Are you kidding?" Leia shot back playfully. "If we were the same age, people would think we're identical. Except you have more manageable hair. And a better nose."

Leia sighed, taking another moment to stare at the girl who was practically a clone of her younger self. However unconventional the circumstances, she couldn't imagine life without her half-sister.

"I've decided that I'm going to tell you what I can, but not all at once," Leia announced. "I'm hoping that if you hear it from me, it will be easier than finding out through an episode like the one you had today."

Tess sat waiting with anticipation. She wouldn't know that she didn't want to know the truth until it was too late.

Leia allowed herself a deep breath before she began detailing one of the worst days of her life, only second to the destruction of Alderaan.


End file.
